JToken: Get raw/original JSON value

Question

Is there a way to get the raw/original JSON value from a JToken?

The problem:

var data = JObject.Parse(@"{
    ""SimpleDate"":""2012-05-18T00:00:00Z"",
    ""PatternDate"":""2012-11-07T00:00:00Z""
}");

var value = data["SimpleDate"].Value<string>();

The value is now 05/18/2012 00:00:00 but I need the original string 2012-05-18T00:00:00Z.

Is there a way to get this original value? Also, I cannot change the way how the JObject is created (e.g. change settings), because it is passed as parameter into my class...

(Reference: The original NJsonSchema issue)

I have a similar problem trying to parse an extended DateTime format (containing millesconds). To make the original question more clear: What if I have a free-text field like for a comment and the user enters something looking like a ISO DateTime? Would it be impossible to parse this string as is? — Nick
– Nick, Commented Nov 11, 2019 at 16:14
For those having this same issue, but don't necessarily need to use Newtonsoft, using System.Text.Json does not have this issue. Invoking "GetString()" on a "JsonProperty" will give you the raw string value. — Martin
– Martin, Commented Mar 1 at 17:38

dbc · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-24 15:35:10Z

31

You cannot get the original string, date strings are recognized and converted to DateTime structs inside the JsonReader itself. You can see this if you do:

Console.WriteLine(((JValue)data["SimpleDate"]).Value.GetType()); // Prints System.DateTime

You can, however, extract the dates in ISO 8601 format by doing:

var value = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(data["SimpleDate"]);
// value is "2012-05-18T00:00:00Z"

This will always output a JValue in a JSON-appropriate string format. Since your original dates are in this format, this may meet your needs.

(Honestly, I'm surprised JValue.ToString() outputs dates in non-ISO format, given that JObject.ToString() does output contained dates in ISO format.)

If you were able to change you settings while reading your JObject, you could use JsonSerializerSettings.DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.None to disable DateTime recognition:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings { DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.None };
var data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JObject>(@"{
    ""SimpleDate"":""2012-05-18T00:00:00Z"",
    ""PatternDate"":""2012-11-07T00:00:00Z""
}", settings);

var value = data["SimpleDate"].Value<string>();

Debug.WriteLine(value); // Outputs 2012-05-18T00:00:00Z

There's no overload to JObject.Parse() that takes a JsonSerializerSettings, so use DeserializeObject. This setting eventually gets propagated to JsonReader.DateParseHandling.

Related Newtonsoft docs:

edited Feb 24, 2021 at 15:35

answered Feb 1, 2016 at 22:39

dbc

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5 Comments

Rico Suter Over a year ago

That's bad: I'm working on a JSON Schema validator, which takes a JObject and may validate such a date string with a regex pattern. This no longer matches when the value is converted into a DateTime...

dbc Over a year ago

Maybe a bit of XY problem here? Could you leverage the fact that Json.NET has already recognized and parsed the date in your validator? There's no standard for dates in JSON after all, see newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/DatesInJSON.htm.

Rico Suter Over a year ago

It seems that the only option is to disable date parsing when creating the JObject... here the original problem: github.com/NJsonSchema/NJsonSchema/issues/22

Rico Suter Over a year ago

Its not an xy prob :-), i'm trying to implement a JSON Schema validator which takes a JObject. The JSON Schema may require more than only a date-time format for a property and may fail because of this automatic transformation...

dbc Over a year ago

@RicoSuter - In that case I restored part of my original answer, in case it's useful.

Nick · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-12 09:05:43Z

7

There's a solution I found in Json.NET Disable the deserialization on DateTime:

JsonReader reader = new JsonTextReader(new StringReader(j1.ToString()));
reader.DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.None;
JObject o = JObject.Load(reader);

answered Nov 12, 2019 at 9:05

Nick

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1 Comment

Vinicius Over a year ago

* Remember that JsonReader implements IDisposable!

Dan Kuida · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-02 10:00:57Z

-4

another approach - that would work - Regex

SimpleDate(?:.*):(?:.*?)\"([0-9|-]{1,}T[0-9|:]+Z)

it is a regex pattern to extract the data you look for - you just wanted the string, so here it is . it is not the JSON parsing approach - but it indeed extracts the string.

here is a sample of how it works

edited Feb 2, 2016 at 10:00

answered Feb 1, 2016 at 22:41

Dan Kuida

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1 Comment

Dan Kuida Over a year ago

it is an answer - the question was to extract the "string" not how to fine tune the Json parse

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