Minify a json string using .NET

Question

How can an existing json string be cleaned up/minfied? I've seen regexes being used. Any other (maybe more efficient) approach?

Answer 1

You can just serialize and deserialize non-minified JSON, you'll get a minified version at the end of it via most serializers.

Using Built-In System.Text.Json

var json = "  {  \"title\": \"Non-minified JSON string\"  }  ";
var doc = JsonDocument.Parse(json);
var minified = JsonSerializer.Serialize(doc);

Using Newtonsoft.Json

Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json

Just parse it and then serialize back into JSON:

var json = "  {  title: \"Non-minified JSON string\"  }  ";
var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);
jsonString = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj);

SerializeObject(obj, Formatting.None) method accepts Formatting enum as a second parameter. You can always choose if you want Formatting.Indented or Formatting.None.

Answer 2

Very basic extension method using System.Text.Json

using System.Text.Json;
using static System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer;

public static class JsonExtensions
{
    public static string Minify(this string json)
        => Serialize(Deserialize<JsonDocument>(json));
}

This takes advantages of default value of JsonSerializerOptions

JsonSerializerOptions.WriteIndented = false