deserialize json string containing date

Question

I have been looking at a few posts on SO about how to deserialize a date in a json string.

The posts mention doing a replace on the string to reformat the Date parts.

the json string looks like this:

"/Date(1336258800000)/\"

apparently what I need to get to is this:

"new Date(1336258800000)"

The trouble is as soon as I try and to a replace, or indexOf ')/\' it doesnt find the string to replace (indexOf is -1)

can anyone see what im doing wrong?

                    JavaScriptSerializer jss = new JavaScriptSerializer();

                    //Fix an issue with Json Dates
                    string json = eventArgument.Replace( @"/Date(", "new Date(" ).Replace( @")/\", ")" );

                    int index = json.IndexOf( @")/\", 0 );

                    WorkPattern wp = jss.DeserializeObject( json ) as WorkPattern;

here is the full json string:

"{\"WorkPatternDays\":[{\"WorkPatternDayShifts\":[{\"WorkPatternDayShiftRates\":[{\"Duration\":8.5,\"Sequence\":0,\"WorkPatternDayShiftID\":186,\"WorkPatternDayShiftRateID\":105,\"Deleted\":false,\"UpdatedUser\":\"\",\"UpdatedDate\":\"/Date(1336258800000)/\"}],\"WorkPatternDayShiftBreaks\":[{\"PaidBreak\":true,\"Duration\":1,\"EndTime\":\"/Date(1336050000000)/\",\"StartTime\":\"/Date(1336046400000)/\",\"WorkPatternDayShiftID\":186,\"WorkPatternDayShiftBreakID\":284,\"Deleted\":false,\"UpdatedUser\":\"\",\"UpdatedDate\":\"/Date(1336258800000)/\"},{\"PaidBreak\":false,\"Duration\":0.25,\"EndTime\":\"/Date(1336058100000)/\",\"StartTime\":\"/Date(1336057200000)/\",\"WorkPatternDayShiftID\":186,\"WorkPatternDayShiftBreakID\":285,\"Deleted\":false,\"UpdatedUser\":\"\",\"UpdatedDate\":\"/Date(1336258800000)/\"}],\"Duration\":8.5,\"EndTime\":\"/Date(1336062600000)/\",\"StartTime\":\"/Date(1336032000000)/\",\"WorkPatternDayID\":186,\"WorkPatternDayShiftID\":186,\"Deleted\":false,\"UpdatedUser\":\"\",\"UpdatedDate\":\"/Date(1336258800000)/\"}],\"DayOfWeek\":1,\"DayOfWeekNumber\":1,\"WorkPatternID\":105,\"WorkPatternDayID\":186,\"Deleted\":false,\"UpdatedUser\":\"\",\"UpdatedDate\":\"/Date(1336258800000)/\"},{\"WorkPatternDayShifts\":[{\"WorkPatternDayShiftRates\":[],\"WorkPatternDayShiftBreaks\":[{\"PaidBreak\":true,\"Duration\":0.5,\"EndTime\":\"/Date(1336041000000)/\",\"StartTime\":\"/Date(1336039200000)/\",\"WorkPatternDayShiftID\":187,\"WorkPatternDayShiftBreakID\":286,\"Deleted\":false,\"UpdatedUser\":\"\",\"UpdatedDate\":\"/Date(1336258800000)/\"}],\"Duration\":5.5,\"EndTime\":\"/Date(1336046400000)/\",\"StartTime\":\"/Date(1336026600000)/\",\"WorkPatternDayID\":187,\"WorkPatternDayShiftID\":187,\"Deleted\":false,\"UpdatedUser\":\"\",\"UpdatedDate\":\"/Date(1336258800000)/\"}],\"DayOfWeek\":3,\"DayOfWeekNumber\":3,\"WorkPatternID\":105,\"WorkPatternDayID\":187,\"Deleted\":false,\"UpdatedUser\":\"\",\"UpdatedDate\":\"/Date(1336258800000)/\"}],\"WorkPatternName\":\"Naths Test Work Pattern\",\"WorkPatternID\":105,\"Deleted\":false,\"UpdatedUser\":\"\",\"UpdatedDate\":\"/Date(1336258800000)/\"}"

A bit more info to see how it all fits together:

code behind:

        public override void DataBind()
        {
            try
            {
                if ( this.WorkPattern != null )
                {
                    //Create a javascript serializer
                    JavaScriptSerializer jss = new JavaScriptSerializer();

                    //Get the serialised object as a json string
                    string json = jss.Serialize( this.WorkPattern );

                    //Run the jquery code
                    base.RunjQueryCode(
                        String.Format( "loadWorkPattern({0});", json ) );

                    jss = null;
                }
            }
            catch ( Exception )
            {

                throw;
            }
        }

 protected override void HandlePostbacks( string eventTarget, string eventArgument )
        {
            try
            {
                switch ( eventTarget )
                {
                    case "Save":

                        JavaScriptSerializer jss = new JavaScriptSerializer();

                        //Fix an issue with Json Dates
                        string json = eventArgument.Replace( @"/Date(", "new Date(" ).Replace( @")/\", ")" );

                        int index = json.IndexOf( @")/\\", 0 );

                        WorkPattern wp = jss.DeserializeObject( json ) as WorkPattern;


                        object o = jss.Deserialize<WorkPattern>( json );


                        break;
                    default: break;
                }

                base.HandlePostbacks( eventTarget, eventArgument );
            }
            catch ( Exception )
            {
                throw;
            }
        }

Markup / js:

function loadWorkPattern(jsonData) {

        //Store the work pattern
        _workPattern = jsonData;

        //Loop through the work pattern days
        $.each(_workPattern.WorkPatternDays, function (key, workPatternDay) {

            //Loop through each shift
            $.each(workPatternDay.WorkPatternDayShifts, function (key, workPatternShift) {
                addShift(workPatternShift, workPatternDay.DayOfWeekNumber);

                //Loop through each break
                $.each(workPatternShift.WorkPatternDayShiftBreaks, function (key, workPatternDayShiftBreak) {
                    addBreak(workPatternDayShiftBreak);
                });
            });
        });
    }

    function saveWorkPattern() {
        __doPostBack('Save', JSON.stringify(_workPattern));
    }

Im calling JSON.stringify to serialize the serialize the stored object before sending back to the server, is this what im doing wrong?

UPDATE

This is the working code:

string json = eventArgument.Replace( @"/Date(", "\\/Date(" ).Replace( @")/", ")\\/" );

Answer 1

Try int index = json.IndexOf( @")/\\", 0 ); - put another slash before the slash

Update

JavaScriptSerializer s = new JavaScriptSerializer();
string date = s.Serialize(DateTime.Now);
int index = date.IndexOf(@")\/", 0);
Console.WriteLine(index); // index = 21

Update - solution

The problem is the the initial string is /Date(1336258800000)/, but not /Date(1336258800000)/\ as the last slash is an escape of the " character in the JSON. And the format for the desiarization should be dirrerent, so the working solution is

string json = eventArgument.Replace( @"/Date(", "\\/Date(" ).Replace( @")/", ")\\/" );

Answer 2

I used regular expressions, hope that's not a problem. The regex detect the /Date(NUMBER)/\ and gets the NUMBER as a group in the regular expression match so I use that to replace everything in the dateTimeJson that matches the regex specified in its constructor with new Date(NUMBER).

        //the source JSON
        string dateTimeJson = "/Date(1336258800000)/\\";
        string result = "";

        //you might want to do a quick IndexOf("Date") to make sure that there is a date
        //so you won't trouble yourselve with regex computation unnecessarily. performance?

        //find Date(NUMBER) matches and get the NUMBER then use it again with new Date in the 
        //call to replace
        System.Text.RegularExpressions.MatchCollection matches = null;
        System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex regex = null;
        try
        {
            //at the end is one forwared slash for regex escaping \ and another is the \ that is escaped
            regex = new System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(@"/Date\(([0-9]*)\)/\\");
            matches = regex.Matches(dateTimeJson);
            string dateNumber = matches[0].Groups[1].Value;
            result = regex.Replace(dateTimeJson, "new Date(" + dateNumber + ")");
        }
        catch (Exception iii)
        {
            //MessageBox.Show(iii.ToString());
        }
        MessageBox.Show(result);