C# Json Serialization of Dictionary into {Key:Value, ...} Instead of {Key:Key, Value:Value, ...}

Serialize dictionary as array (of key value pairs)

Ah, it turns out this is as straightforward as I'd hoped. My Dictionary<k,v> is subclassed already and I found that I can annotate it with [JsonArrayAttribute]. That gives me exactly the format I need;

"MyDict": [
  {
    "Key": "Apples",
    "Value": {
        "Taste": 1341181398,
        "Title": "Granny Smith",
    }
  },
  {
    "Key:": "Oranges",
    "Value:": {
        "Taste": 9999999999,
        "Title": "Coxes Pippin",
    }
  },
]

Json.net deserialize dictionary and assign dictionary key to dictionary value's member variable

Immediately after typing the question, I figure out that the Json.net supports a few serialization callback attributes (from System.Runtime.Serialization), which is exactly what I need.

    [OnDeserialized]
    internal void OnDeserializedMethod(StreamingContext context)
    {
        Member4 = "This value was set after deserialization.";
    }

Alternatively, instead of using a Dictionary, there's also KeyedCollection<TKey,TItem>, which reduces the need for duplicated dictionary key. The downside is that it won't deserialize and serialize to the desired json format I want by default, and require some customization.

How do you make a tuple or keyvalue pair json serialize like a dictionary in C#

One way to solve this problem is via the usage of ILookup<,> and a custom JsonConverter.

• You can think of the ILookup<T1, T2> as a Dictionary<T1, IEnumerable<T2>>
• So, it is a Bag data structure.

var dataSource = new List<KeyValuePair<string, string>>
{
    new KeyValuePair<string, string>("test", "value1"),
    new KeyValuePair<string, string>("test", "value2"),
    new KeyValuePair<string, string>("test", "value3"),
    new KeyValuePair<string, string>("test2", "somevalue"),
};
var toBeSerializedData = dataSource.ToLookup(pair => pair.Key, pair => pair.Value);
var serializedData =JsonConvert.SerializeObject(toBeSerializedData);

This will generate the following json:

[
  [
    "value1",
    "value2",
    "value3"
  ],
  [
    "somevalue"
  ]
]

• As you see the values are grouped by the Keys.
• But the keys are omitted and the values are in arrays.

In order to overcome of these we can define a custom JsonConverter:

public class LookupSerializer : JsonConverter
{
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType) => objectType.GetInterfaces()
        .Any(a => a.IsGenericType && a.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(ILookup<,>));

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object? value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        writer.WriteStartObject();
        foreach (object values in (IEnumerable)value)
        {
            var keyProp = values.GetType().GetProperty("Key");
            var keyValue = keyProp.GetValue(values, null);

            foreach (var val in (IEnumerable)values)
            {
                writer.WritePropertyName(keyValue.ToString());
                writer.WriteValue(val.ToString());
            }
        }

        writer.WriteEndObject();
    }

    public override object? ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object? existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer) 
        => throw new NotImplementedException(); 
}

• CanConvert: restricts the usage only for ILookup.
• WriteJson: iterates through the groups with the outer foreach and iterates through the values via the inner foreach.
• Here we can't use JObject (and its Add method) to create the output because it would fail with an ArgumentException:

Can not add property test to Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject.

Property with the same name already exists on object.

• So, we have to use lower level JsonWriter to construct the output.

If you pass an instance of the LookupSerialzer to the SerializeObject (or register the converter application-wide):

var serializedData =JsonConvert.SerializeObject(toBeSerializedData, new LookupSerializer());

then the output will be the one as desired:

{
  "test" : "value1",
  "test" : "value2",
  "test" : "value3",
  "test2" : "somevalue"
}

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