TL;DR Json.NET can serialize and deserialize dictionaries with simple keys like integers or strings. It can serialize, but not deserialize dictionaries with more complex keys.<\/p>\n
Longer version: Json.NET uses ToString() to convert a dictionary key to JSON field identifier. A simple case works like this:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/code><\/p>\n The dictionary value can be of any complex type: normal serialization rules apply.<\/p>\n <\/code><\/p>\n However, Json.NET uses <\/code><\/p>\n It is even possible to trick Json.NET into generating duplicate keys (which appears to be technically valid JSON<\/a>):<\/p>\n <\/code><\/p>\n Well, no one is perfect \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TL;DR Json.NET can serialize and deserialize dictionaries with simple keys like integers or strings. It can serialize, but not deserialize dictionaries with more complex keys. Longer version: Json.NET uses ToString() […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-ikriv","has-more-link","post-2064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-dotnet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ikriv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ikriv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ikriv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ikriv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ikriv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ikriv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ikriv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ikriv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ikriv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n var dict = new Dictionary<int, string>\n {\n {10, \"ten\"},\n {42, \"forty two\"}\n };\n\n var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(dict);\n Console.WriteLine(json); \/\/ prints {\"10\":\"ten\",\"42\":\"forty two\"}\n\n var deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<int, string>>(json); \/\/ gets your dictionary back<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n var dict = new Dictionary<int, Tuple<int, string>>()\n {\n {10, Tuple.Create(10, \"ten\")},\n {42, Tuple.Create(42, \"forty two\")},\n };\n\n Console.WriteLine();\n var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(dict);\n Console.WriteLine(json); \/\/ {\"10\":{\"Item1\":10,\"Item2\":\"ten\"},\"42\":{\"Item1\":42,\"Item2\":\"forty two\"}}\n\n var deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<int, Tuple<int, string>>>(json);<\/pre>\nToString()<\/code> to generate dictionary keys:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n var dict = new Dictionary<Tuple<int, int>, string>\n {\n { Tuple.Create(10,20), \"ten-twenty\" },\n { Tuple.Create(5,3), \"five-three\" },\n };\n\n var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(dict);\n Console.WriteLine(json); \/\/ {\"(10, 20)\":\"ten-twenty\",\"(5, 3)\":\"five-three\"}\n\n var deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<Tuple<int, int>, string>>(json); \/\/ blows up <\/pre>\n<\/p>\n struct CustomKey\n {\n private readonly int _val;\n\n public CustomKey(int val)\n {\n _val = val;\n }\n\n public override string ToString()\n {\n return \"CustomKey\";\n }\n\n public override int GetHashCode()\n {\n return _val.GetHashCode();\n }\n\n public override bool Equals(object obj)\n {\n if (!(obj is CustomKey)) return false;\n return _val == ((CustomKey)obj)._val;\n }\n }\n\n var dict = new Dictionary<CustomKey, string>\n {\n {new CustomKey(10), \"ten\"},\n {new CustomKey(42), \"forty two\"}\n };\n\n var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(dict);\n Console.WriteLine(json); \/\/ {\"CustomKey\":\"ten\",\"CustomKey\":\"forty two\"}\n\n var deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<CustomKey, string>>(json); \/\/ blows up<\/pre>\n