Why is my JavaScriptSerializer returning empty json objects?

Question

I have a list of data points, as defined below:

public class Point {
    string Rate;
    string Date;
    string Number;

    public Point(string Rate, string Date, string Number)
    {
        this.Rate = Rate;
        this.Date = Date;
        this.Number = Number;
    }
}

Then within my code I have:

List<Point> points = populatedList;
JavaScriptSerializer javaScriptSerializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();

string text = javaScriptSerializer.Serialize(points);

System.IO.File.WriteAllText(@"C:\Users\Public\WriteText.txt", text);

When I go to view "WriteText.txt", however, all I have is a bunch of empty brackets: {}, {}, {} ... I have also tried doing this with only one point, and then I am left with only one matching pair of brackets. I then tried serializing a string object alone and that worked fine. Why is the JavaScriptSerializer not behaving as expected?

Do you perhaps mean to serialize points and not toSerialize? — User 12345678
– User 12345678, Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 21:30
Yes, my mistake, actual code has JsonSerialization as a separate method — mike
– mike, Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 21:31

Travis J · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-25 21:49:09Z

18

The access level for class members and struct members, including nested classes and structs, is private by default. - Access Modifiers^MSDN

As a result of that, the serialization will not see those properties. In order for them to be serialized, they need to be marked as public. They also need to have a public getter in order for the serializer to read the property.

public string Rate { get; set; }
public string Date { get; set; }
public string Number { get; set; }

edited Jul 25, 2014 at 21:49

answered Jul 25, 2014 at 21:32

Travis J

82.6k43 gold badges213 silver badges280 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

mike Over a year ago

I've only started using C# recently, I am used to Java where I've gotten used to private access modifiers and public getters / setters. It seems like C# likes public access modifiers for class variables; is there a reason for this?

Travis J Over a year ago

@mike - It doesn't have to be like that, you could use public { get; } instead. As for design decisions for property exposure, I think that is language agnostic.

mike Over a year ago

While I agree, the examples provided by the official docs of a given language definitely seem to promote some tendencies...

Travis J Over a year ago

@mike - That is basically a result of just making a simple example. Most of those are bare bones examples and only include properties which are going to be used so they must be exposed. Moreover, any example which is shown using an ORM is going to be using public getter and setter properties in order to faciliate database persistence. If you have a specific example in mind and are wondering why there is a public property which you think should be private, feel free to link it.

mike Over a year ago

The ORM comment pretty much answers it for me

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Why is my JavaScriptSerializer returning empty json objects?

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related