String Enum in C# for creating a JSON

Enrico — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 11:08:17 +0000

I have a Blazor component for creating graphs with ChartJs. Based on the models, C# creates a Json for the Chart configuration. I use the System.Text.Json to convert the class to a Json. Some configurations have defined values that I can use: for example, the PointStyle accepts only few values such as circle and cross.

For this reason, I want to have the constraint to select only the accepted values for this configuration. Then, in my project I created a class PointStyle to have a sort of enum with string.

public class PointStyle
{
    private PointStyle(string value) { Value = value; }

    public string Value { get; private set; }

    public static PointStyle Circle { get { return new PointStyle("circle"); } }
    public static PointStyle Cross { get { return new PointStyle("cross"); } }
}

To obtain the correct Json configuration, in the main model I created 2 properties: PointStyle and PointStyleString.

public PointStyle? PointStyle { 
    get => _pointStyle; 
    set
    {
        _pointStyle = value;
        PointStyleString = _pointStyle.Value;
    }
}
private PointStyle? _pointStyle;



public string? PointStyleString { get; set; }

PointStyle accepts only the values in the defined list but this is ignored from the Json converter. For example, I can configure this like

PointStyle = PointStyle.Cross

Then, the public variable PointStyleString contains the string I have to serialize in the Json and this is updated when the PointStyle sets a new value.

Now, I have to read the property Value from the class PointStyle that contains the string I have to pass to the configuration. For this reason, I have a private variable _pointStyle that saves the value for PointStyle; so, when a new value is set, I also set the PointStyleString.

Everything I described above is working but it seems to me quite complicated for just setting a value. Do you think I can simplify this code?

String Enum in C# for creating a JSON - C#

String Enum in C# for creating a JSON