using System;

using Newtonsoft.Json;

using Newtonsoft.Json.Converters;

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

​

namespace My

{

    public class Test

    {

        public static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            // I tknow this is kind of mistyped...

            var text = "{ \"Pattern\": \"[0-9]*\\t[a-z]+\" }";

            var o = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Rule>(text);

            Console.WriteLine(o.Pattern);

        }

    }

    public class Rule

    {

        [JsonConverter(typeof(LooseRegexConverter))]

        public string Pattern { get; set; }

        public bool Test(string text)

        {

            return new Regex(Pattern).IsMatch(text);

        }    

    }

    public class LooseRegexConverter : JsonConverter

    {

        public const string SingleBackslash = @"\";

        public const string DoubleBackslash = @"\\";

​

        /// <inheritdoc />

        public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)

        {

            using (var stringWriter = new System.IO.StringWriter())

            {

                serializer.Serialize(stringWriter, value);

                var json = stringWriter.GetStringBuilder().ToString();

                writer.WriteRawValue(json.Replace(DoubleBackslash, SingleBackslash));

            }

        }

​

        public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)

        {

            if (CanConvert(objectType))

            {

                // When I debug what "reader" contains, 

                reader.Value.Dump();

                var value = serializer.Deserialize(reader, objectType);

                return value;

            }

​

            return null;

        }

​

        public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)

        {

            return objectType.Equals(typeof(string));

        }

    }

}

​

​

​