Anonymous C # and returning filtered properties using JSON

Question

What is the best way to return only a few properties to a JSON result from an IEnumerable collection?

The department object has 7properties. I need only 2 of them in the client. Can I do this using C # anonymous types?

public class Department { public string DeptId { get; set; } public string DeptName { get; set; } public string DeptLoc1 { get; set; } public string DeptLoc2 { get; set; } public string DeptMgr { get; set; } public string DeptEmp { get; set; } public string DeptEmp2 { get; set; } } [HttpGet] public JsonResult DepartmentSearch(string query) { IEnumerable<Department> depts = DeptSearchService.GetDepartments(query); //Department object has 15 properties, I ONLY need 2 (DeptID and DeptName) in the view via returns JSON result) return Json(depts, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet); // I don't want all the properties of a department object } 

Answer 1

 var deptnames = depts.Select(d => new { d.DeptID, d.DeptName }); 

Then just use deptnames

Answer 2

Of course, I serialize anonymous types all the time. This is a reasonable plan.

Answer 3

Use Linq projection

unverified code

 var deptsProjected = from d in depts select new { d.DeptId, d.DeptName }; return Json(deptsProjected , JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);