Generate JSON string output in C#

This is one of the most widely used and very useful script that you could use in your web services/ WCF services/ Handlers or any place wherein you require a JSON string to be passed to the client/ consumer.

We make use of the Serialize method in JavaScriptSerializer class in C# under the following namespace:

using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

The code snippet below show how its done:

//Namespace for the JavascriptSerializer object

using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

public string GenerateJSONString(List<myObject> myCustomList)

{

//Initialize the JavascriptSerializer object   

JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();

//Initialize a stringbuilder object to hold the final JSON output     

StringBuilder jsonBuilder = new StringBuilder();

//Generate the JSON string

serializer.Serialize(myCustomList, jsonBuilder);

//Return the JSON string

return Convert.ToString(jsonBuilder);

}

This code is just a framework to get to know that the JavascriptSerializer could help you generate JSON string with ease.

In the client side, you could use jQuery.parseJSON(JSONstring); and then parse this JSON string using the myObject properties. Remeber that parseJSON was added in jQuery v1.4.1.