howto Serialize a Nested collection using JsonWriter in C#

Question

I need to produce the same output I produce in XML using JSON

For some tabular data that is in an Excel Worksheet, data is in the format:

Column1 Col         


        

Answer 1

You should write the property name "Items" only once, then for its value use JsonWriter.WriteStartArray() and JsonWriter.WriteEndArray() to start and end a JSON array, then write each row as an object nested in the array:

var sb = new StringBuilder();
using (var sw = new StringWriter(sb))
using (var jsonWriter = new JsonTextWriter(sw))
{
    var countAwait = 0;

    jsonWriter.Formatting = Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.Indented;
    jsonWriter.WriteStartObject(); // Write the opening of the root object
    jsonWriter.WritePropertyName(RowElement); // Write the "Items" property name
    jsonWriter.WriteStartArray(); // Write the opening of the "Items" array

    for (int row = firstRow; row <= end.Row; row++)
    {
        count++;
        countAwait++;
        if (countAwait >= 10)
        {
            ResultText = "Reading record " + count;
            countAwait = 0;
        }
        jsonWriter.WriteStartObject(); // Write the beginning of an entry in the "Items" array
        for (int col = start.Column; col <= end.Column; col++)
        {
            jsonWriter.WritePropertyName(fieldNames[col]);
            jsonWriter.WriteValue(GetCellStringValue(ws, row, col));

        }
        jsonWriter.WriteEndObject(); // Write the ending of an entry in the "Items" array
    }

    jsonWriter.WriteEndArray(); // Write the closing of the "Items" array.
    jsonWriter.WriteEndObject(); // Write the closing of the root object
    // No need to close explicitly when inside a using statement
}

(Here I am assuming that RowElement corresponds to the "Items" string.)