Serializing null in JSON.NET

Question

When serializing arbitrary data via JSON.NET, any property that is null is written to the JSON as

\"propertyName\" : null

This

Answer 1

Okay, I think I've come up with a solution (my first solution wasn't right at all, but then again I was on the train). You need to create a special contract resolver and a custom ValueProvider for Nullable types. Consider this:

public class NullableValueProvider : IValueProvider
{
    private readonly object _defaultValue;
    private readonly IValueProvider _underlyingValueProvider;


    public NullableValueProvider(MemberInfo memberInfo, Type underlyingType)
    {
        _underlyingValueProvider = new DynamicValueProvider(memberInfo);
        _defaultValue = Activator.CreateInstance(underlyingType);
    }

    public void SetValue(object target, object value)
    {
        _underlyingValueProvider.SetValue(target, value);
    }

    public object GetValue(object target)
    {
        return _underlyingValueProvider.GetValue(target) ?? _defaultValue;
    }
}

public class SpecialContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
    protected override IValueProvider CreateMemberValueProvider(MemberInfo member)
    {
        if(member.MemberType == MemberTypes.Property)
        {
            var pi = (PropertyInfo) member;
            if (pi.PropertyType.IsGenericType && pi.PropertyType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof (Nullable<>))
            {
                return new NullableValueProvider(member, pi.PropertyType.GetGenericArguments().First());
            }
        }
        else if(member.MemberType == MemberTypes.Field)
        {
            var fi = (FieldInfo) member;
            if(fi.FieldType.IsGenericType && fi.FieldType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Nullable<>))
                return new NullableValueProvider(member, fi.FieldType.GetGenericArguments().First());
        }

        return base.CreateMemberValueProvider(member);
    }
}

Then I tested it using:

class Foo
{
    public int? Int { get; set; }
    public bool? Boolean { get; set; }
    public int? IntField;
}

And the following case:

[TestFixture]
public class Tests
{
    [Test]
    public void Test()
    {
        var foo = new Foo();

        var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings { ContractResolver = new SpecialContractResolver() };

        Assert.AreEqual(
            JsonConvert.SerializeObject(foo, Formatting.None, settings), 
            "{\"IntField\":0,\"Int\":0,\"Boolean\":false}");
    }
}

Hopefully this helps a bit...

Edit – Better identification of the a Nullable<> type

Edit – Added support for fields as well as properties, also piggy-backing on top of the normal DynamicValueProvider to do most of the work, with updated test