Json.net Deserialize Wrapped Types Without Duplicating Code

Question

In C#, I'm wrapping primitive types to track what the primitive represents. Here's an example:

class Meters {
    public readonly float Value;
    public Meters(float v) { Value = v; }
}

I then compose these types into objects:

class Box {
    public Meters Width { get; set; }
    public Meters Height { get; set; }
}

Using Json.net, I need to deserialize a Box from json data that look like this:

{
    "Width": 3.23,
    "Height": 2.0
}

Can this be done without changing the json to "Width": { "Value": 3.23 } and without repeated, boilerplate code for every type like Meters?

Thanks.

Answer 1

This could be achieved by adding some implicit operator to the class that can convert a primitive (ie float, decimal, double etc) to your object. Such as.

class Meters
{

    public static implicit operator Meters(float value)
    {
        return new Meters(value);
    }

    public static implicit operator Meters(decimal value)
    {
        return new Meters((float)value);
    }

    public static implicit operator Meters(double value)
    {
        return new Meters((float)value);
    }

    public readonly float Value;

    public Meters(float v) { Value = v; }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return Value.ToString();
    }
}