I've seen a few different ways to iterate over a dictionary in C#. Is there a standard way?
foreach(KeyValuePair<string, string> entry in myDictionary)
{
// do something with entry.Value or entry.Key
}
If you are trying to use a generic Dictionary in C# like you would use an associative array in another language:
foreach(var item in myDictionary)
{
foo(item.Key);
bar(item.Value);
}
Or, if you only need to iterate over the collection of keys, use
foreach(var item in myDictionary.Keys)
{
foo(item);
}
And lastly, if you're only interested in the values:
foreach(var item in myDictionary.Values)
{
foo(item);
}
(Take note that the var keyword is an optional C# 3.0 and above feature, you could also use the exact type of your keys/values here)
In some cases you may need a counter that may be provided by for-loop implementation. For that, LINQ provides ElementAt which enables the following:
for (int index = 0; index < dictionary.Count; index++) {
var item = dictionary.ElementAt(index);
var itemKey = item.Key;
var itemValue = item.Value;
}
Depends on whether you're after the keys or the values...
From the MSDN Dictionary(TKey, TValue) Class description:
// When you use foreach to enumerate dictionary elements,
// the elements are retrieved as KeyValuePair objects.
Console.WriteLine();
foreach( KeyValuePair<string, string> kvp in openWith )
{
Console.WriteLine("Key = {0}, Value = {1}",
kvp.Key, kvp.Value);
}
// To get the values alone, use the Values property.
Dictionary<string, string>.ValueCollection valueColl =
openWith.Values;
// The elements of the ValueCollection are strongly typed
// with the type that was specified for dictionary values.
Console.WriteLine();
foreach( string s in valueColl )
{
Console.WriteLine("Value = {0}", s);
}
// To get the keys alone, use the Keys property.
Dictionary<string, string>.KeyCollection keyColl =
openWith.Keys;
// The elements of the KeyCollection are strongly typed
// with the type that was specified for dictionary keys.
Console.WriteLine();
foreach( string s in keyColl )
{
Console.WriteLine("Key = {0}", s);
}
Generally, asking for "the best way" without a specific context is like asking
what is the best color?
One the one hand, there are many colors and there's no best color. It depends on the need and often on taste, too.
On the other hand, there are many ways to iterate over a Dictionary in C# and there's no best way. It depends on the need and often on taste, too.
Most straightforward way
foreach (var kvp in items)
{
// key is kvp.Key
doStuff(kvp.Value)
}
If you need only the value (allows to call it item, more readable than kvp.Value).
foreach (var item in items.Values)
{
doStuff(item)
}
If you need a specific sort order
Generally, beginners are surprised about order of enumeration of a Dictionary.
LINQ provides a concise syntax that allows to specify order (and many other things), e.g.:
foreach (var kvp in items.OrderBy(kvp => kvp.Key))
{
// key is kvp.Key
doStuff(kvp.Value)
}
Again you might only need the value. LINQ also provides a concise solution to:
iterate directly on the value (allows to call it item, more readable than kvp.Value)
but sorted by the keys
Here it is:
foreach (var item in items.OrderBy(kvp => kvp.Key).Select(kvp => kvp.Value))
{
doStuff(item)
}
There are many more real-world use case you can do from these examples.
If you don't need a specific order, just stick to the "most straightforward way" (see above)!
C# 7.0 introduced Deconstructors and if you are using .NET Core 2.0+ Application, the struct KeyValuePair<> already include a Deconstruct() for you. So you can do:
var dic = new Dictionary<int, string>() { { 1, "One" }, { 2, "Two" }, { 3, "Three" } };
foreach (var (key, value) in dic) {
Console.WriteLine($"Item [{key}] = {value}");
}
//Or
foreach (var (_, value) in dic) {
Console.WriteLine($"Item [NO_ID] = {value}");
}
//Or
foreach ((int key, string value) in dic) {
Console.WriteLine($"Item [{key}] = {value}");
}
I would say foreach is the standard way, though it obviously depends on what you're looking for
foreach(var kvp in my_dictionary) {
...
}
Is that what you're looking for?
You can also try this on big dictionaries for multithreaded processing.
dictionary
.AsParallel()
.ForAll(pair =>
{
// Process pair.Key and pair.Value here
});
I appreciate this question has already had a lot of responses but I wanted to throw in a little research.
Iterating over a dictionary can be rather slow when compared with iterating over something like an array. In my tests an iteration over an array took 0.015003 seconds whereas an iteration over a dictionary (with the same number of elements) took 0.0365073 seconds that's 2.4 times as long! Although I have seen much bigger differences. For comparison a List was somewhere in between at 0.00215043 seconds.
However, that is like comparing apples and oranges. My point is that iterating over dictionaries is slow.
Dictionaries are optimised for lookups, so with that in mind I've created two methods. One simply does a foreach, the other iterates the keys then looks up.
public static string Normal(Dictionary<string, string> dictionary)
{
string value;
int count = 0;
foreach (var kvp in dictionary)
{
value = kvp.Value;
count++;
}
return "Normal";
}
This one loads the keys and iterates over them instead (I did also try pulling the keys into a string[] but the difference was negligible.
public static string Keys(Dictionary<string, string> dictionary)
{
string value;
int count = 0;
foreach (var key in dictionary.Keys)
{
value = dictionary[key];
count++;
}
return "Keys";
}
With this example the normal foreach test took 0.0310062 and the keys version took 0.2205441. Loading all the keys and iterating over all the lookups is clearly a LOT slower!
For a final test I've performed my iteration ten times to see if there are any benefits to using the keys here (by this point I was just curious):
Here's the RunTest method if that helps you visualise what's going on.
private static string RunTest<T>(T dictionary, Func<T, string> function)
{
DateTime start = DateTime.Now;
string name = null;
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
name = function(dictionary);
}
DateTime end = DateTime.Now;
var duration = end.Subtract(start);
return string.Format("{0} took {1} seconds", name, duration.TotalSeconds);
}
Here the normal foreach run took 0.2820564 seconds (around ten times longer than a single iteration took - as you'd expect). The iteration over the keys took 2.2249449 seconds.
Edited To Add:
Reading some of the other answers made me question what would happen if I used Dictionary instead of Dictionary. In this example the array took 0.0120024 seconds, the list 0.0185037 seconds and the dictionary 0.0465093 seconds. It's reasonable to expect that the data type makes a difference on how much slower the dictionary is.
What are my Conclusions?
Avoid iterating over a dictionary if you can, they are substantially slower than iterating over an array with the same data in it.
If you do choose to iterate over a dictionary don't try to be too clever, although slower you could do a lot worse than using the standard foreach method.
As already pointed out on this answer, KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> implements a Deconstruct method starting on .NET Core 2.0, .NET Standard 2.1 and .NET Framework 5.0 (preview).
With this, it's possible to iterate through a dictionary in a KeyValuePair agnostic way:
var dictionary = new Dictionary<int, string>();
// ...
foreach (var (key, value) in dictionary)
{
// ...
}
There are plenty of options. My personal favorite is by KeyValuePair
Dictionary<string, object> myDictionary = new Dictionary<string, object>();
// Populate your dictionary here
foreach (KeyValuePair<string,object> kvp in myDictionary)
{
// Do some interesting things
}
You can also use the Keys and Values Collections
With .NET Framework 4.7 one can use decomposition
var fruits = new Dictionary<string, int>();
...
foreach (var (fruit, number) in fruits)
{
Console.WriteLine(fruit + ": " + number);
}
To make this code work on lower C# versions, add System.ValueTuple NuGet package and write somewhere
public static class MyExtensions
{
public static void Deconstruct<T1, T2>(this KeyValuePair<T1, T2> tuple,
out T1 key, out T2 value)
{
key = tuple.Key;
value = tuple.Value;
}
}
As of C# 7, you can deconstruct objects into variables. I believe this to be the best way to iterate over a dictionary.
Example:
Create an extension method on KeyValuePair<TKey, TVal> that deconstructs it:
public static void Deconstruct<TKey, TVal>(this KeyValuePair<TKey, TVal> pair, out TKey key, out TVal value)
{
key = pair.Key;
value = pair.Value;
}
Iterate over any Dictionary<TKey, TVal> in the following manner
// Dictionary can be of any types, just using 'int' and 'string' as examples.
Dictionary<int, string> dict = new Dictionary<int, string>();
// Deconstructor gets called here.
foreach (var (key, value) in dict)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{key} : {value}");
}
foreach is fastest and if you only iterate over ___.Values, it is also faster
Using C# 7, add this extension method to any project of your solution:
public static class IDictionaryExtensions
{
public static IEnumerable<(TKey, TValue)> Tuples<TKey, TValue>(
this IDictionary<TKey, TValue> dict)
{
foreach (KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> kvp in dict)
yield return (kvp.Key, kvp.Value);
}
}
And use this simple syntax
foreach (var(id, value) in dict.Tuples())
{
// your code using 'id' and 'value'
}
Or this one, if you prefer
foreach ((string id, object value) in dict.Tuples())
{
// your code using 'id' and 'value'
}
In place of the traditional
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> kvp in dict)
{
string id = kvp.Key;
object value = kvp.Value;
// your code using 'id' and 'value'
}
The extension method transforms the KeyValuePair of your IDictionary<TKey, TValue> into a strongly typed tuple, allowing you to use this new comfortable syntax.
It converts -just- the required dictionary entries to tuples, so it does NOT converts the whole dictionary to tuples, so there are no performance concerns related to that.
There is a only minor cost calling the extension method for creating a tuple in comparison with using the KeyValuePair directly, which should NOT be an issue if you are assigning the KeyValuePair's properties Key and Value to new loop variables anyway.
In practice, this new syntax suits very well for most cases, except for low-level ultra-high performance scenarios, where you still have the option to simply not use it on that specific spot.
Check this out: MSDN Blog - New features in C# 7
Simplest form to iterate a dictionary:
foreach(var item in myDictionary)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.Key);
Console.WriteLine(item.Value);
}
I found this method in the documentation for the DictionaryBase class on MSDN:
foreach (DictionaryEntry de in myDictionary)
{
//Do some stuff with de.Value or de.Key
}
This was the only one I was able to get functioning correctly in a class that inherited from the DictionaryBase.
Sometimes if you only needs the values to be enumerated, use the dictionary's value collection:
foreach(var value in dictionary.Values)
{
// do something with entry.Value only
}
Reported by this post which states it is the fastest method:
http://alexpinsker.blogspot.hk/2010/02/c-fastest-way-to-iterate-over.html
I know this is a very old question, but I created some extension methods that might be useful:
public static void ForEach<T, U>(this Dictionary<T, U> d, Action<KeyValuePair<T, U>> a)
{
foreach (KeyValuePair<T, U> p in d) { a(p); }
}
public static void ForEach<T, U>(this Dictionary<T, U>.KeyCollection k, Action<T> a)
{
foreach (T t in k) { a(t); }
}
public static void ForEach<T, U>(this Dictionary<T, U>.ValueCollection v, Action<U> a)
{
foreach (U u in v) { a(u); }
}
This way I can write code like this:
myDictionary.ForEach(pair => Console.Write($"key: {pair.Key}, value: {pair.Value}"));
myDictionary.Keys.ForEach(key => Console.Write(key););
myDictionary.Values.ForEach(value => Console.Write(value););
If you want to use a for loop, you can do as below:
var keyList=new List<string>(dictionary.Keys);
for (int i = 0; i < keyList.Count; i++)
{
var key= keyList[i];
var value = dictionary[key];
}
I will take the advantage of .NET 4.0+ and provide an updated answer to the originally accepted one:
foreach(var entry in MyDic)
{
// do something with entry.Value or entry.Key
}
If say, you want to iterate over the values collection by default, I believe you can implement IEnumerable<>, Where T is the type of the values object in the dictionary, and "this" is a Dictionary.
public new IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
{
return this.Values.GetEnumerator();
}
The standard way to iterate over a Dictionary, according to official documentation on MSDN is:
foreach (DictionaryEntry entry in myDictionary)
{
//Read entry.Key and entry.Value here
}
I wrote an extension to loop over a dictionary.
public static class DictionaryExtension
{
public static void ForEach<T1, T2>(this Dictionary<T1, T2> dictionary, Action<T1, T2> action) {
foreach(KeyValuePair<T1, T2> keyValue in dictionary) {
action(keyValue.Key, keyValue.Value);
}
}
}
Then you can call
myDictionary.ForEach((x,y) => Console.WriteLine(x + " - " + y));
Dictionary< TKey, TValue > It is a generic collection class in c# and it stores the data in the key value format.Key must be unique and it can not be null whereas value can be duplicate and null.As each item in the dictionary is treated as KeyValuePair< TKey, TValue > structure representing a key and its value. and hence we should take the element type KeyValuePair< TKey, TValue> during the iteration of element.Below is the example.
Dictionary<int, string> dict = new Dictionary<int, string>();
dict.Add(1,"One");
dict.Add(2,"Two");
dict.Add(3,"Three");
foreach (KeyValuePair<int, string> item in dict)
{
Console.WriteLine("Key: {0}, Value: {1}", item.Key, item.Value);
}
The best answer is of course: Think, if you could use a more appropriate data structure than a dictionary if you plan to iterate over it- as Vikas Gupta mentioned already in the (beginning of the) discussion under the question. But that discussion as this whole thread still lacks surprisingly good alternatives. One is:
SortedList<string, string> x = new SortedList<string, string>();
x.Add("key1", "value1");
x.Add("key2", "value2");
x["key3"] = "value3";
foreach( KeyValuePair<string, string> kvPair in x )
Console.WriteLine($"{kvPair.Key}, {kvPair.Value}");
Why it could be argued a code smell of iterating over a dictionary (e.g. by foreach(KeyValuePair<,>) ?
A basic principle of Clean Coding:
"Express intent!"
Robert C. Martin writes in "Clean Code": "Choosing names that reveal intent". Obviously naming alone is too weak. "Express (reveal) intent with every coding decision" expresses it better.
A related principle is "Principle of least surprise" (=Principle of Least Astonishment).
Why this is related to iterating over a dictionary? Choosing a dictionary expresses the intent of choosing a data structure which was made for primarily finding data by key. Nowadays there are so much alternatives in .NET, if you want to iterate through key/value pairs that you could choose something else.
Moreover: If you iterate over something, you have to reveal something about how the items are (to be) ordered and expected to be ordered!
Although the known implementations of Dictionary sort the key collection in the order of the items added-
AFAIK, Dictionary has no assured specification about ordering (has it?).
But what are the alternatives?
TLDR:
SortedList: If your collection is not getting too large, a simple solution would be to use SortedList<,> which gives you also full indexing of key/value pairs.
Microsoft has a long article about mentioning and explaining fitting collections:
Keyed collection
To mention the most important: KeyedCollection<,> and SortedDictionary<,> .
SortedDictionary<,> is a bit faster than SortedList for only inserting if it gets large, but lacks indexing and is needed only if O(log n) for inserting is preferenced over other operations. If you really need O(1) for inserting and accept slower iterating in exchange, you have to stay with simple Dictionary<,>.
Obviously there is no data structure which is the fastest for every possible operation..
Additionally there is ImmutableSortedDictionary<,>.
And if one data structure is not exactly what you need, then derivate from Dictionary<,> or even from the new ConcurrentDictionary<,> and add explicit iteration/sorting functions!
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, int>
{
{ "Key", 12 }
};
var aggregateObjectCollection = dictionary.Select(
entry => new AggregateObject(entry.Key, entry.Value));
Just wanted to add my 2 cent, as the most answers relate to foreach-loop.
Please, take a look at the following code:
Dictionary<String, Double> myProductPrices = new Dictionary<String, Double>();
//Add some entries to the dictionary
myProductPrices.ToList().ForEach(kvP =>
{
kvP.Value *= 1.15;
Console.Writeline(String.Format("Product '{0}' has a new price: {1} $", kvp.Key, kvP.Value));
});
Altought this adds a additional call of '.ToList()', there might be a slight performance-improvement (as pointed out here foreach vs someList.Foreach(){}),
espacially when working with large Dictionaries and running in parallel is no option / won't have an effect at all.
Also, please note that you wont be able to assign values to the 'Value' property inside a foreach-loop. On the other hand, you will be able to manipulate the 'Key' as well, possibly getting you into trouble at runtime.
When you just want to "read" Keys and Values, you might also use IEnumerable.Select().
var newProductPrices = myProductPrices.Select(kvp => new { Name = kvp.Key, Price = kvp.Value * 1.15 } );
in addition to the highest ranking posts where there is a discussion between using
foreach(KeyValuePair<string, string> entry in myDictionary)
{
// do something with entry.Value or entry.Key
}
or
foreach(var entry in myDictionary)
{
// do something with entry.Value or entry.Key
}
most complete is the following because you can see the dictionary type from the initialization, kvp is KeyValuePair
var myDictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>(x);//fill dictionary with x
foreach(var kvp in myDictionary)//iterate over dictionary
{
// do something with kvp.Value or kvp.Key
}
I am currently struggling to create a dictionary. I want to create it so that it can be used in multiple situations. However, these situations vary from key and value types. So while you normally do:
Dictionary<int, string> Something = new Dictionary<int, string>();
I want to do something like:
Dictionary<variable1, variable2> ..............
Doesn't matter much what variable1 is. It can be a string, that stores 'string', or 'int' as value. I could also use variable1.getType() to determine the type. Either way would work for me. But the way I did above, well, that is just incorrect. There must be another way to set the key and value type based on variables... right?
Something just shoot into my head, to use if's to check what the type is, and based on the type make the dictionary use that type. But with the amount of types, it's going to be a lot of if's, and I feel like there has to be a better way.
Searching hasn't helped me much. Well I learned some other things, but no solution to my problem. In every single case, dictionary TKey and TValue has been set manually. While I want to set them, with a variable that I take from some source.
There must be another way to set the key and value type based on
variables... right?
Yes, there is. You can make a helper method that creates a dictionary, example:
public static Dictionary<K, V> CreateDictionaryFor<K, V>(K key, V value)
{
return new Dictionary<K, V>();
}
Then, you can use it with variable1 and variable2:
var dictionary = CreateDictionaryFor(variable1, variable2);
You can try doing Dictionary<object, object>.
That way you can pass whatever you need to pass and check the type as needed.
var dict = new Dictionary<object, object>();
dict.Add(45, "dkd");
A pssibility would be to capsulate the dictionary in a new class, and create the dictionary via a generic method:
public class GenericDictionary
{
private IDictionary m_dictionary;
public bool Add<TA, TB>(TA key, TB value)
{
try
{
if (m_dictionary == null)
{
m_dictionary = new Dictionary<TA, TB>();
}
//check types before adding, instead of using try/catch
m_dictionary.Add(key, value);
return true;
}
catch (Exception)
{
//wrong types were added to an existing dictionary
return false;
}
}
}
Of course the code above needs some improvements (no exception when adding wrong types, additional methods implementing the dictionary methods you need), but the idea should be clear.
My data source could have duplicate keys with values.
typeA : 1
typeB : 2
typeA : 11
I chose to use NameValueCollection as it enables entering duplicate keys.
I want to remove specific key\value pair from the collection, but NameValueCollection.Remove(key) removes all values associated with the specified key.
Is there a way to remove single key\value pair from a NameValueCollection,
OR
Is there a better collection in C# that fits my data
[EDIT 1]
First, thanks for all the answers :)
I think I should have mentioned that my data source is XML.
I used System.Xml.Linq.XDocument to query for type and also it was handy to remove a particular value.
Now, my question is, for large size data, is using XDocument a good choice considering the performance?
If not what are other alternatives (maybe back to NameValueCollection and using one of the techniques mentioned to remove data)
The idea of storing multiple values with the same key is somehow strange. But I think you can retrieve all values using GetValues then remove the one you don't need and put them back using Set and then subsequent Add methods. You can make a separate extension method method for this.
NameValueCollection doesn't really allow to have multiple entries with the same key. It merely concatenates the new values of existing keys into a comma separated list of values (see NameValueCollection.Add.
So there really is just a single value per key. You could conceivably get the value split them on ',' and remove the offending value.
Edit: #ElDog is correct, there is a GetValues method which does this for you so no need to split.
A better option I think would be to use Dictionary<string, IList<int>> or Dictionary<string, ISet<int>> to store the values as discrete erm, values
You may convert it to Hashtable
var x = new NameValueCollection();
x.Add("a", "1");
x.Add("b", "2");
x.Add("a", "1");
var y = x.AllKeys.ToDictionary(k => k, k=>x[k]);
make your own method, it works for me --
public static void Remove<TKey,TValue>(
this List<KeyValuePair<TKey,TValue>> list,
TKey key,
TValue value) {
return list.Remove(new KeyValuePair<TKey,TValue>(key,value));
}
then call it on list as --
list.Remove(key,value); //Pass the key value...
Perhaps not the best way, but....
public class SingleType
{
public string Name;
public int Value;
}
List<SingleType> typeList = new List<SingleType>();
typeList.Add (new SingleType { Name = "TypeA", Value = 1 });
typeList.Add (new SingleType { Name = "TypeA", Value = 3 });
typeList.Remove (typeList.Where (t => t.Name == "TypeA" && t.Value == 1).Single());
You can use the Dictionary collection instead:
Dictionary<string, int> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, int>();
dictionary.Add("typeA", 1);
dictionary.Add("typeB", 1);
When you try to insert type: 11 it will throw exception as Key already exists. So you can enter a new key to insert this data.
Refer this Tutorial for further help.
I have objects in hashtable, in that object I have a list, how to access it?
ls.cs
class lh
{
public string name;
public List<ulong> nList = new List<ulong>();
public lh(string name)
{
this.name = name; ;
}
}
Program.cs
static void Main(string[] args)
{
while((line=ps.ReadLine()) != null)
{
gen.h_lh.Add(line, new lh(line));
}
}
public class gen
{
public static Hashtable h_lh = new Hashtable();
}
this works. when I debug I can see the object created in the hashtable; I just cant/dont know how to access/store value to the list
it's gotta be something like gen.h_lh[lh].something right ? but this didnt work. what did I miss?
First of all Hashtable is obsolete, use Dictionary<TKey, TValue> instead (Dictionary<string, lh> in your case).
Given a key, you can access the value of that key with: h_lh[key].
Or you can enumerate all of the key/value pairs with:
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, lh> pair in h_lh)
pair.Value // this is an lh object
You can also enumerate just keys h_lh.Keys, or just values h_lh.Values.
A hash tables is a data structure that represents a set. That means that by definition, you don't want to access the hash table to get an element, you just want to add, remove, or aks if an element exists. These are the basic operations with sets.
This said, HashSet<T> in .NET has no indexer. Why? Consider the line that you wrote yourself:
var item = gen.h_lh[lh]
If you really can provide the lh to index, what do you expect the hash table to give you? The same instance? Of course not, you already have it, if you are using it in the indexer. So perhaps your problem it's not very well determined.
First of all you need to determine why (and how) you want to access the elements. All you want is to iterate through all of them, or you want to quickly index any one of them? If you just want to get all the elements at some point, then you have all you need: HashSet<T> implements IEnumerable<T>. If you need to get an specific element, then you must have some key to identify the element (like the name property here), and in this case what you want is not a HashSet<lh> but a Dictionary<string,lh>, just like #Tergiver said.
foreach(System.System.Collections.DictionaryEntry entry in h_lh)
{
Console.WriteLine("Key: " + entry.Key.ToString() + " | " + "Value: " + entry.Value.ToString());
}
or you could access it using a key
lh myLh = h_lh[line];
Update answer for comment
foreach(System.System.Collections.DictionaryEntry entry in h_lh)
{
List<ulong> nList = (ulong)entry.Value;
nList.Add(1);
}
The whole story; I have some KeyValuePairs that I need to store in a session and my primary goal is to keep it small. Therefore I don't have the option of using many different collection. While the key is a different enum value of of a different enum type the value is always just a enum value of the same enum type. I have chosen a HashTable for this approach which content look like this (just many more):
// The Key-Value-Pairs
{ EnumTypA.ValueA1, MyEnum.ValueA },
{ EnumTypB.ValueB1, MyEnum.ValueB },
{ EnumTypC.ValueC1, MyEnum.ValueA },
{ EnumTypA.ValueA2, MyEnum.ValueC },
{ EnumTypB.ValueB1, MyEnum.ValueC }
At most I am running contains on that HashTable but for sure I also need to fetch the value at some point and I need to loop through all elements. That all works fine but now I have a new requirement to keep the order I have added them to the HashTable -> BANG
A HashTable is a map and that is not possible!
Now I thought about using a SortedList<object, MyEnum> or to go with more Data but slightly faster lookups and use a SortedSet<object> in addition to the HashTable.
Content below has been edited
The SortedList is implemented as
SortedList<Enum, MyEnum> mySortedList = new SortedList<Enum, MyEnum>();
the SortedSet is implemented as
SortedSet<Enum> mySortedSet = new SortedSet<Enum>();
The described Key - Value - Pairs are added to the sorted list with
void AddPair(Enum key, MyEnum value)
{
mySortedList.Add(key, value);
}
And for the SortedSett like this
void AddPair(Enum key)
{
mySortedSet.Add(key);
}
Both are failing with the exception:
Object must be the same type as the
enum
My question is: What goes wrong and how can I archive my goal?
Used Solution
I've decided to life with the downside
of redundant data against slower
lookups and decided to implement a
List<Enum> which will retain the
insert order parallel to my already
existing HashTable.
In my case I just have about 50-150
Elements so I decided to benchmark the
Hashtable against the
List<KeyValuePair<object,object>>
Therefore I have create me the
following helper to implement
ContainsKey() to the
List<KeyValuePair<object,object>>
static bool ContainsKey(this List<KeyValuePair<object, object>> list, object key)
{
foreach (KeyValuePair<object, object> p in list)
{
if (p.Key.Equals(key))
return true;
}
return false;
}
I inserted the same 100 Entries and
checked randomly for one of ten
different entries in a 300000 loop.
And... the difference was tiny so I
decided to go with the
List<KeyValuePair<object,object>>
I think you should store your data in an instance of List<KeyValuePair<Enum, MyEnum>> or Dictionary<Enum, MyEnum>.
SortedSet and SortedList are generic, but your keys are EnumTypeA/EnumTypeB, you need to specify the generic T with their base class(System.Enum) like:
SortedList<Enum, MyEnum> sorted = new SortedList<Enum, MyEnum>();
EDIT
Why you got this exception
SortedList and SortedSet use a comparer inside to check if two keys are equal. Comparer<Enum>.Default will be used as the comparer if you didn't specify the comparer in the constructor. Unfortunately Comparer<Enum>.Default isn't implemented as you expected. It throws the exception if the two enums are not the same type.
How to resolve the problem
If you don't want to use a List<KeyValuePair<Enum, MyEnum>> and insist using SortedLIst, you need to specify a comparer to the constructor like this:
class EnumComparer : IComparer<Enum>
{
public int Compare(Enum x, Enum y)
{
return x.GetHashCode() - y.GetHashCode();
}
}
var sorted = new SortedList<Enum, MyEnum>(new EnumComparer());
Btw, I think you need to obtain the "inserting order"? If so, List<KeyValuePair<K,V>> is a better choice, because SortedSet will prevent duplicated items.