System.Collections.DictionaryBase example in C#

In this article I will show you a simple way to implement System.Collections.DictionaryBase class. I will do this by creating a console application as shown below.

For an overview of what is available in System.Collections Namespace check out
Collections Overview C#: http://dotnetanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/04/c-collections.html


Create  class file called Human.cs and paste this code in there


using System;

namespace ConsolePlayground

{

    class Human

    {

        public string name

        {

            get;

            set;

        }

    }

}

Create a class file called HumanCollection.cs and paste this code in there

using System;

using System.Collections;

namespace ConsolePlayground

{

    class HumanCollection : DictionaryBase

    {

        public void Add(string ID, Human addHu)

        {

            Dictionary.Add(ID, addHu);

        }

        public void Remove(string ID)

        {

            Dictionary.Remove(ID);

        }

        public Human this[string ID]

        {

            get

            {

                return (Human)Dictionary[ID];

            }

            set

            {

                Dictionary[ID] = value;

            }

        }

    }

}

(If you don't understand what   this[string ID]  means, check out indexers)

Create a class file called Class1.cs and paste this code in there

using System;

using System.Collections;

namespace ConsolePlayground

{

    class Class1

    {

        public static void Main()

        {

            Human hu1 = new Human();

            hu1.name = "Clinton";

            Human hu2 = new Human();

            hu2.name = "Bush";

            Human hu3 = new Human();

            hu3.name = "Obama";

            HumanCollection Leaders = new HumanCollection();

            Leaders.Add("1", hu1);//Item is added as a key,value pair

            Leaders.Add("2", hu2);

            Leaders.Add("3", hu3);

            Console.WriteLine(Leaders["1"].name);//Item is accessed by key and not index

            Console.WriteLine("*************************");

            foreach (DictionaryEntry de in Leaders)

            {

                Console.WriteLine(de.Key);

                Console.WriteLine(((Human)de.Value).name);

                Console.WriteLine("*************************");

            }

        }

    }

}

Once you have done the above your app will look something like this

Once you run the application, this is how the output would look like.