unit testing - How can I serialize an object to C# object initializer code?

Question

I'm looking to take an in-memory object (or JSON serialization of an object) and emit C# code to produce an equivalent object.

This would be useful for pulling known-good examples from a repository to use as starting points in unit tests. We have considered deserializing JSON, but C# code would have an edge when it comes to refactoring.

Answer 1

There is an interesting Visual Studio extension that addresses this; the Object Exporter. It allows serialization of an in-memory object into C# Object initialization code, JSON and XML. I haven't tried it yet but looks intriguing; will update after trying it out.