Json.Net deserialization, keeping some properties unserialized

Question

I have a json string looking something like this:

{
    "Bar": { 
        "Pressure":42,
        "ServesDrinks":false
    },
    "Baz":[
        {
            "Pressure":9001,
            "ServesDrinks":true
        },
        {
            "Pressure":0,
            "ServesDrinks":false
        }
    ]
}

And I would like to de-serialize this into a class looking something like this:

public class Foo
{
    public Bar Bar { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Raw serialized (un-de-serialized) json string of the Baz list  
    /// </summary>
    public string Baz { get; set; }
}

Basically not de-serializing the Baz value and instead storing the raw string. I.e. I want the Baz string value after serialization to be:

"[{\"Pressure\":9001,\"ServesDrinks\":true},{\"Pressure\":0,\"ServesDrinks\":false}]"

I am using Json.Net but have not managed to figure out how to do this. In the ideal case I would just like to put a magic attribute on my Baz property that retains the raw json.

I have seen a very similar question here: Partially deserialize with JSON.NET, keeping some fields raw

But I did understand how to go with that JObject approach.

(If it is of any help, I know that the data I want to retain is a list)

Thankful for any help!

Answer 1

Based on the answer to the other question, it seems that the solution in JSON.Net for cases like this is to use the appropriate J* type and use their ToString() and Parse() methods to work with the JSON string.

For JS lists, the appropriate type seems to be JArray, not JObject, which is used for {} style Javascript objects.

Please note that I know little about JSON.Net, and perhaps there is a different solution which would avoid the need to use Parse() and ToString() everywhere. Somebody with a better knowledge of that library might give a better answer.