With Json.NET, how can I merge two C# objects that need to be serialized together?

Question

Say I have some classes that I often serialize normally, such as

public class A
{
    public A(int x, bool y)
    {
        X = x;
        Y = y;
    }

    [JsonProperty("x_thing")]
    public int X { get; }

    [JsonProperty("y_thing")]
    public bool Y { get; }
}

public class B
{
    public B(string s)
    {
        S = s;
    }

    [JsonProperty("string_thing")]
    public string S { get; }
}

If I want to start here (but pretend A and B are arbitrary objects):

var obj1 = new A(4, true);
var obj2 = new B("hello world");

... then how can I idiomatically produce this JSON serialization?

{
    "x_thing": 4,
    "y_thing": true,
    "string_thing": "hello world"
}

Does this answer your question? Merge two objects during serialization using json.net? — gunr2171
– gunr2171, Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 11:40
@gunr2171 the only generic solution in there involves authoring your own converter, which I just cannot believe is the nicest method — Archimaredes
– Archimaredes, Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 11:47
@Heinzi good thought, but I'd rather convert each to an intermediary object before serialising that - seems far more efficient... currently looking into Json.NET's Linq.JObject for that — Archimaredes
– Archimaredes, Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 11:48
@AndriyShevchenko I mean, necessarily I think I'd need to merge them as abstract objects...? — Archimaredes
– Archimaredes, Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 11:49

Heinzi · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-22 11:54:14Z

2

JObject has a Merge method:

var json1 = JObject.FromObject(obj1);
var json2 = JObject.FromObject(obj2);
json1.Merge(json2);

// json1 now contains the desired result

fiddle

If your objects contain properties with the same name, you can use the overload taking a JsonMergeSettings object to specify how conflicts should be resolved.

edited Oct 22, 2021 at 11:54

answered Oct 22, 2021 at 11:49

Heinzi

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1 Comment

Archimaredes Over a year ago

thank you! I also like that I can just json1.ToObject<object>() if I want to keep it as an object for later use/serialization (which I actually do in my case, since this combined object ends up becoming part of an ASP.NET controller response!)

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