CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netwinformsdata-structures
swordfish
swordfish

Reputation: 4995

data structure to eliminate multiple hashtables in c#

i am developing an application in which i add controls during runtime and to keep track of these controls i am maintaing separate hashtables so that it will be easy for me to do what ever i want with them later. But I am having around 6 hashtables and maintaining these is a little complex. So i was wondering whether i can have all these controls in to one data structure but it should be easy for me to identify them just like i do in hashtable. Basically what i want is an extended version of hashtable where i can add multiple values to one key. For example what i have now is

 hashtable addButtons = new hashtable();
 hashtable remButtons = new hashtable();

 addButtons.add(name,b);
 remButtons.add(name,r);

Now it would be cool if i can do something like 

addButtons.add(name=>(b,r,etc,etc));

and then get any of it just like in hashtable like

addButtons[name][1]

Can any one tell me if something like this is possible in c#.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 246

Answers (4)

Alex Aza
Alex Aza

Reputation: 78447

Not sure I understood your question correctly. Something like this?

var controlsDictionary = new Dictionary<string, List<Control>>();

var b1 = new Button();
var b2 = new Button();

controlsDictionary["AddButtons"] = new List<Control> { b1, b2 };

var firstButton = controlsDictionary["AddButtons"][0];

Upvotes: 2

rsbarro
rsbarro

Reputation: 27339

Sounds like you want a Dictionary of Dictionaries, something like:

var d = new Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, Control>>();

//Create new sub dictionary
d.Add("name1", new Dictionary<string, Control>());

//Add control
d["name1"].Add("btnOne", btnOne);

//Retrieve control
var ctrl = d["name1"]["btnOne"];

Upvotes: 1

Marc Gravell
Marc Gravell

Reputation: 1062502

I would have a class representing the 6 things...

public class SomeType { // RENAME ME
    public int AddButton {get;set;}
    public string RemoveButton {get;set;}
    public DateTime Some {get;set;}
    public float Other {get;set;}
    public decimal Names {get;set;}
    public bool Here {get;set;}
} // ^^ names and types above just made up; FIX ME!

and a Dictionary<string,SomeType> - then you can:

yourField.Add(name, new SomeType { AddButton = ..., ..., Here = ... });

and

var remButton = yourField[name].RemoveButton;

Upvotes: 1

Steve
Steve

Reputation: 31642

How about Dictionary<String, List<?>> ?

Combined with something like this: 

public static class Extensions
{
     public static void AddItemsWithName<T>(this Dictionary<String, List<T>> this, string name, params T[] items)
     {
           // ...
     }
}

Would give you something very close to the syntax you're looking for.

Upvotes: 3

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