Specifying a custom DateTime format when serializing with Json Net

Question

I am developing an API to expose some data using ASP NET Web API   In one of the API  the client wants us to expose the date in yyyy-MM-dd format  I don t want to change the global settings  e g  GlobalConfiguration Configuration Formatters JsonFormatter  for that since it is very specific to this client  And I do developing that in a solution for multiple clients   One of the solution that I could think of is to create a custom JsonConverter and then put that to the property I need to do the custom formatting  e g   class ReturnObjectA         JsonConverter typeof CustomDateTimeConverter        public DateTime ReturnDate   get set       Just wondering if there is some other easy way of doing that

User · Answer

Build helper class and apply it to your property attribute  Helper class   public class ESDateTimeConverter   IsoDateTimeConverter       public ESDateTimeConverter                 base DateTimeFormat    yyyy-MM-ddTHH mm ss fffZ             Your code use like this    JsonConverter typeof ESDateTimeConverter    public DateTime timestamp   get  set

User · Answer

There is another solution I ve been using  Just create a string property and use it for json  This property wil return date properly formatted  class JSonModel                 JsonIgnore      public DateTime MyDate   get  set          JsonProperty  quot date quot        public string CustomDate           get   return MyDate ToString  quot ddMMyyyy quot                 set   MyDate   DateTime Parse value             set   MyDate   DateTime ParseExact value   quot ddMMyyyy quot   null                       This way you don t have to create extra classes  Also  it allows you to create diferent data formats  e g  you can easily create another Property for Hour using the same DateTime

User · Answer

You are on the right track   Since you said you can t modify the global settings  then the next best thing is to apply the JsonConverter attribute on an as-needed basis  as you suggested   It turns out Json Net already has a built-in IsoDateTimeConverter that lets you specify the date format   Unfortunately  you can t set the format via the JsonConverter attribute  since the attribute s sole argument is a type   However  there is a simple solution  subclass the IsoDateTimeConverter  then specify the date format in the constructor of the subclass   Apply the JsonConverter attribute where needed  specifying your custom converter  and you re ready to go   Here is the entirety of the code needed   class CustomDateTimeConverter   IsoDateTimeConverter       public CustomDateTimeConverter                 base DateTimeFormat    yyyy-MM-dd             If you don t mind having the time in there also  you don t even need to subclass the IsoDateTimeConverter  Its default date format is yyyy - MM - dd T HH   mm   ss FFFFFFFK  as seen in the source code

User · Answer

Also available using one of the serializer settings overloads   var json   JsonConvert SerializeObject someObject  new JsonSerializerSettings     DateFormatString    yyyy-MM-ddThh mm ssZ        Or  var json   JsonConvert SerializeObject someObject  Formatting Indented  new JsonSerializerSettings     DateFormatString    yyyy-MM-ddThh mm ssZ        Overloads taking a Type are also available

User · Answer

public static JsonSerializerSettings JsonSerializer   get  set      new JsonSerializerSettings                         DateFormatString   quot yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss quot               NullValueHandling   NullValueHandling Ignore              ContractResolver   new LowercaseContractResolver               Hello  I m using this property when I need set JsonSerializerSettings

User · Answer

With below converter public class CustomDateTimeConverter   IsoDateTimeConverter               public CustomDateTimeConverter                         DateTimeFormat    quot yyyy-MM-dd quot                      public CustomDateTimeConverter string format                        DateTimeFormat   format                   Can use it with a default custom format class ReturnObjectA         JsonConverter typeof DateFormatConverter        public DateTime ReturnDate   get set      Or any specified format for a property class ReturnObjectB         JsonConverter typeof DateFormatConverter    quot dd MMM yy quot        public DateTime ReturnDate   get set

User · Answer

Some times decorating the json convert attribute will not work  it will through exception saying that  2010-10-01  is valid date  To avoid this types i removed json convert attribute on the property and mentioned in the deserilizedObject method like below   var addresss   JsonConvert DeserializeObject lt AddressHistory gt  address  new IsoDateTimeConverter   DateTimeFormat    yyyy-MM-dd

User · Answer

It can also be done with an IsoDateTimeConverter instance  without changing global formatting settings   string json   JsonConvert SerializeObject yourObject      new IsoDateTimeConverter     DateTimeFormat    yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss        This uses the JsonConvert SerializeObject overload that takes a params JsonConverter   argument

User · Answer

You could use this approach   public class DateFormatConverter   IsoDateTimeConverter       public DateFormatConverter string format                DateTimeFormat   format            And use it this way   class ReturnObjectA         JsonConverter typeof DateFormatConverter    yyyy-MM-dd        public DateTime ReturnDate   get set       The DateTimeFormat string uses the  NET format string syntax described here  https   docs microsoft com en-us dotnet standard base-types custom-date-and-time-format-strings

[c#] Specifying a custom DateTime format when serializing with Json.Net

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