Resolving Dataset or DataTable conversion issue in System.Text.Json

Issue Description

Serialization or Deserialization using ‘System.Type’ instances gives an error using System.Text.Json in .NET Core or ASP.NET Core

System.Text.Json.JsonException: ‘A possible object cycle was detected which is not supported. This can either be due to a cycle or if the object depth is larger than the maximum allowed depth of 0.’

Resolving Dataset or DataTable conversion issue in TextJson

I found this issue while Serializing System.Data.DataTable or Dataset to other types.

Resolution

I found these errors while using ‘System.Text.Json‘ in the .NET Core console application while serializing DataTable and DataSet types to Custom Object types.

I found that DataTable or DataSet conversion is currently not supported in the System.Text.Json serializer.

This feature will be supported by most probably future versions of .NET Core like .NET 5 or 6 or above version and until then, you may need to rely on a Custom converter for such conversion if needed.

Below is the codebase used which was producing the error for me.

static string ConvertDataTableToJson(DataTable dataTable)
    {
        // Convert DataTable to JSON using System.Text.Json
        
        return JsonSerializer.Serialize(dataTable, options);
    }

Similarly converting the dataset to JSON as below,

In the above example, we are sending the Table as inputs and serializing it as JSON.

static string ConvertDataSetToJson(DataSet dataSet)
    {
        // Convert DataSet to JSON using System.Text.Json
       
        return JsonSerializer.Serialize(dataSet, options);
    }

Due to these limitations, I had to turn it back to Newtonsoft(JSON.NET) usage until I got clarity on the future version.

Note- Please note my version was .NET SDK 3.1 early version when I wrote this article.

However Newtonsoft usage was straightforward to use which I finally opted for. Please see the below article for more details,

Serialize DataTable and DataSet using NewtonSoft(JSON.NET)

Another solution could be trying a Custom converter for such conversion.

I did attempt to write a custom converter using the steps mentioned in the article: Create a Custom Converter for serialization/deserialization, but found it to be time time-consuming process to cover all the scenarios.

As per Microsoft – Serialization and Deserialization of ‘System.Type’ instances will not be supported in the System.Text.JSON library due to security issues.

Did I miss anything else in these resolution steps?

Did the above steps resolve your issue? Please sound off your comments below!

Happy Coding !!

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