ASP.NET MVC How to convert ModelState errors to json

Here is the full implementation with all the pieces put together:

First create an extension method:

public static class ModelStateHelper
{
    public static IEnumerable Errors(this ModelStateDictionary modelState)
    {
        if (!modelState.IsValid)
        {
            return modelState.ToDictionary(kvp => kvp.Key,
                kvp => kvp.Value.Errors
                                .Select(e => e.ErrorMessage).ToArray())
                                .Where(m => m.Value.Any());
        }
        return null;
    }
}

Then call that extension method and return the errors from the controller action (if any) as json:

if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
    return Json(new { Errors = ModelState.Errors() }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

And then finally, show those errors on the clientside (in jquery.validation style, but can be easily changed to any other style)

function DisplayErrors(errors) {
    for (var i = 0; i < errors.length; i++) {
        $("<label for='" + errors[i].Key + "' class='error'></label>")
        .html(errors[i].Value[0]).appendTo($("input#" + errors[i].Key).parent());
    }
}

I like to use Hashtable here, so that I get JSON object with properties as keys and errors as value in form of string array.

var errors = new Hashtable();
foreach (var pair in ModelState)
{
    if (pair.Value.Errors.Count > 0)
    {
        errors[pair.Key] = pair.Value.Errors.Select(error => error.ErrorMessage).ToList();
    }
}
return Json(new { success = false, errors });

This way you get following response:

{
   "success":false,
   "errors":{
      "Phone":[
         "The Phone field is required."
      ]
   }
}

You can put anything you want to inside the select clause:

var errorList = (from item in ModelState
        where item.Value.Errors.Any() 
        select item.Value.Errors[0].ErrorMessage).ToList();

EDIT: You can extract multiple errors into separate list items by adding a from clause, like this:

var errorList = (from item in ModelState.Values
        from error in item.Errors
        select error.ErrorMessage).ToList();

Or:

var errorList = ModelState.Values.SelectMany(m => m.Errors)
                                 .Select(e => e.ErrorMessage)
                                 .ToList();

2^nd EDIT: You're looking for a Dictionary<string, string[]>:

var errorList = ModelState.ToDictionary(
    kvp => kvp.Key,
    kvp => kvp.Value.Errors.Select(e => e.ErrorMessage).ToArray()
);