TooString 0.3.0-preview

TooString is a Stringifier that goes places serializers don't.

TooString() can

• make a best effort to stringify objects that JsonSerializer won't, including System.Reflection classes and System.Type, or that JsonSerializer surprises you with, such as ValueTuples.
• Output as Json, or ‘debug view’ style, or as [CallerArgumentExpression]

TooString offers 3 extension method groups on Object:

value.TooString();
value.ToJson();
value.ToDebugViewString();

TooString is not a serializer, it is intended for test and diagnostic display. A reliable Serializer must be fail-fast — it should throw if it cannot deterministically serialize the input — but TooString is best effort; it will attempt to return a partial representation of the input even when input cannot reliably be serialized.

Example:

( Math.Sqrt(4 * Math.PI / 3)  ).TooString( TooStringHow.CallerArgument ) 
// Output is the literal code: "Math.Sqrt(4 * Math.PI / 3)"

var anonObject = new { A = "boo", B = new Complex(3,4) };
anonObject.ToJson();
anonObject.TooString(TooStringHow.Json);
// Output is the System.Text.Json output:
// {"A":"boo","B":{"Real":3,"Imaginary":4,"Magnitude":5,"Phase":0.9272952180016122}}

anonObject.ToDebugViewString();
anonObject.TooString(TooStringHow.Reflection);
// Output is "{ A = boo, B = (3, 4) }" 

var tuple = (one: 1, two: "2", three: new Complex(3,4));
System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Serialize(tuple)
// Output is "{}"

tuple.ToJson()
tuple.TooString()
tuple.TooString(TooStringHow.Json)
// Output is created by reflection and presents the tuple and the Complex number as arrays
// [1,"2",[3,4]] 

tuple.ToDebugViewString()
tuple.TooString(TooStringHow.Reflection)
// Output is created by reflection and mimics typical debugger display
// on Net6.0: {item1 = 1, item2 = "2", item3 = (3,4)}  
// on Net8.0: {item1 = 1, item2 = "2", item3 = <3;4>}

Gotchas

Example: Json-serializing value tuples is something of a surprise because (unlike anonymous objects or records or structs) they have no public properties and their public fields are not named as per your code. Takeaway: don't choose value tuples for public apis that must be jsonned.

Use modifications of TooStringOptions.Default to customise the results.

(one:1, two:"2").TooString( TooStringHow.Json )
System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Serialize(  (one:1, two:"2")  )
// Output is "{}" because there are no public fields

// do this instead:

var options = TooStringOptions.Default with
{
    JsonOptions = new JsonSerializerOptions { IncludeFields = true }
};
var jsonnedIncludeFields = (one:1, two:"2") .TooString(options);
// Output is "{"Item1":1,"Item2":"2"}"

- Infinite loops are avoided with MaxDepth settings.

ChangeLog

<pre> 0.2.0 Added Net8. NB Net8 Json and Numerics output is different from Net6 Rename TooStringStyle to TooStringHow. Fix SerializationStyle.Reflection output of DateTime, DateOnly, TimeOnly. 0.1.0 Can use DebugView, Json, ToString() or [CallerArgumentExpression] and can output Json or Debug strings. </pre>