Why does JSON.NET serialize everything on a single line?

Question

I simply want the JSON.net serializer to write out JSON objects (to file), one object per line but instead it just appends everything on the same top line.

Answer 1

The samples provided are indented for clarity, but the default behavior is to write the resulting JSON string without any unnecessary whitespace. You can override this behavior like this:

jw.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
jw.WriteStartObject();
...

Further Reading

• Formatting enum

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To ensure that each entry is appended to a new line, you could simply write a new line character after you've written your JSON object, like this:

...
jw.WriteEndObject();
jw.WriteRaw("\n");

Or by calling WriteLine on the underlying TextWriter, though that would need to be done outside of this method.

Answer 2

Figured it out, though not sure if there's a cleaner way. I added a

jw.WriteWhitespace(Environment.NewLine);

at the end. Now everything looks good:

{"TimeStamp":"2014-03-10T15:04:27.0128185",...}
{"TimeStamp":"2014-03-10T15:04:27.0128185",...}
...