Question

I want to use .Net Framework built-in library to convert my DataTable / DataSet to JSON. How is this possible.

Answer 1

DataTable and DataSet objects cannot be JSON serialized directly. You’ll need to convert them first to something like

IDictionary<string, IEnumerable<IDictionary<string, object>>>

Once you do that, you can use JavaScriptSerializer to do the actual conversion to JSON.

Update based on your comment:

If you are trying to convert the data obtained from a SQL query into JSON, represent the data in a simple class first:

public class Employee
{
    public int EmployeeID { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

Read the results into:

List<Employee>

Now, convert the list to JSON using JavaScriptSerializer.