Serialize C# Enum Definition to Json

Question

Given the following in C#:

[Flags]
public enum MyFlags {
  None = 0,
  First = 1 << 0,
  Second = 1 << 1,
  Third = 1 << 2,
  Fourth = 1 <&l         


        

Answer 1

public static class EnumExtensions
{
    public static string EnumToJson(this Type type)
    {
        if (!type.IsEnum)
            throw new InvalidOperationException("enum expected");

        var results =
            Enum.GetValues(type).Cast<object>()
                .ToDictionary(enumValue => enumValue.ToString(), enumValue => (int) enumValue);


        return string.Format("{{ \"{0}\" : {1} }}", type.Name, Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(results));

    }
}

Using a dictionary of to do the heavy lifting. Then using Newtonsoft's json convert to convert that to json. I just had to do a bit of wrapping to add the type name on.

Answer 2

You're better off populating a Dictionary<string,int> or a Typed DTO and serializing that.