Serializing List to JSON in C# creates backslashes in front of quotes

Question

I am trying to serialize a List in C# and it is mostly working fine except that it creates backslashes in front of the double quotes. I have read online that this is a result from serializing the data twice and I have tried different approaches to removing the backslashes but they are not really working for me.

C# code (Using NewtonSoft.Json Library):

List<string> list_element_object = new List<string>();

foreach (var list_element in total_lists)
{

/* Code to get all of the 'element_lists' data 
Which is eventually used to create the 'columns' data below */ 

var columns = new Dictionary<string, string>
                {
                    {"@type", "Element_Lists" },
                    {"Name", Element_List_Name },
                    {"Description", Element_List_Description},
                    {"URL", Element_URL }
                };

var serialized = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(columns);

// Add the serialized object to the list
list_element_object.Add(serialized);

}

// Serlialize the list containing the data and store into a ViewBag variable to use in a View
ViewBag.Element_Data_Raw = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(list_element_object);

Output:

"{\"@type\":\"Elements\",\"Name\":\"Some_Element_Name\",\"Description\":\"Some_Element_Description\",\"URL\":\"Some_Element_URL\"}"

Expected Output:

"{"@type":"Elements","Name":"Some_Element_Name","Description":"Some_Element_Description","URL":"Some_Element_URL"}"

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

I'm still not 100% certain on your question, but this should produce normal JSON output, which I guess is what you want. As noted by Bagus Tesa in the comments, double quotes will be escaped in the debugger display. Since you're double-serializing a dictionary (ie first you're serializing it to a string, and then you're serializing that string), you're bound to have escaped strings in your current output.

List<Dictionary<string, string>> list_element_object = new List<Dictionary<string, string>>();

foreach (var list_element in total_lists)
{

    /* Code to get all of the 'element_lists' data 
    Which is eventually used to create the 'columns' data below */ 

    var Element_List_Name = list_element.Element_List_Name;
    var Element_List_Description = list_element.Element_List_Description;
    var Element_URL = list_element.Element_URL;

    var columns = new Dictionary<string, string>
                    {
                        {"@type", "Element_Lists" },
                        {"Name", Element_List_Name },
                        {"Description", Element_List_Description},
                        {"URL", Element_URL }
                    };

    // Add the serialized object to the list
    list_element_object.Add(columns);

}

// Serlialize the list containing the data and store into a ViewBag variable to use in a View
ViewBag.Element_Data_Raw = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(list_element_object);

Changing the list to store dictionaries, and then serializing only the list will produce JSON like this (I've formatted it for easy viewing):

[
  {
    "@type": "Element_Lists",
    "Name": "Some_Element_Name",
    "Description": "Some_Element_Description",
    "URL": "Some_Element_URL"
  }
]

Try it online