How can I beautify JSON for display in a TextBox?

Question

How can I beautify JSON with C#? I want to print the result in a TextBox control.

Is it possible to use JavaScriptSerializer for this, or should I use JSON.net? Un

Answer 1

With JSON.Net you can beautify the output with a specific formatting.

Demo on dotnetfiddle.

Code

public class Product
{
    public string Name {get; set;}
    public DateTime Expiry {get; set;}
    public string[] Sizes {get; set;}
}

public void Main()
{
    Product product = new Product();
    product.Name = "Apple";
    product.Expiry = new DateTime(2008, 12, 28);
    product.Sizes = new string[] { "Small" };

    string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(product, Formatting.None);
    Console.WriteLine(json);
    json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(product, Formatting.Indented);
    Console.WriteLine(json);
}

Output

{"Name":"Apple","Expiry":"2008-12-28T00:00:00","Sizes":["Small"]}
{
  "Name": "Apple",
  "Expiry": "2008-12-28T00:00:00",
  "Sizes": [
    "Small"
  ]
}