Question

I’m trying to deserialize the following:

{"ts":"2012-04-22 04:14:50,669", "msg":"Hello"}

into

public class LogEntry
{
    public DateTime Ts { get; set; }
    public string Msg { get; set; }
}

using

var logEntry = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<LogEntry>(line);

But get a JsonSerializationException saying “{“Error converting value \”2012-04-22 04:14:28,478\” to type ‘System.DateTime’. Line 1, position 31.”}. I cannot change the log format.

I think I might need to parse the date string myself using a Converter. However, I cannot find any examples of JsonConverter that seem relevant. Specifically how to read the value from the reader in the ReadJson method.

Are there any simple examples that I should look at? Or am I going about this the wrong way?

Answer 1

The format on your DateTime string uses a comma for the decimal separator (,478). You may be able to initialise a JsonSerializerSettings object (documented here) with an appropriate Culture, and then deserialise using DeserializeObject<T>(value, settings) (documented here). This would deserialise using the culture you specify rather than the default InvariantCulture.