CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#dictionaryunity-game-engine
Sevlac
Sevlac

Reputation: 43

how to call a dictionary with a string

I have 4 dictionary, each contain a button's name and the button's value. I Have a List that contain the name of each dictionary

    private Dictionary<string, int> TableArray = new Dictionary<string, int>() { { "ButtonRMT35", 35 }, { "ButtonRMT17", 17 }, { "ButtonRMT11", 11 }, { "ButtonRMT8", 8 }, { "ButtonRMT5", 5 } };
    private Dictionary<string, int> ParArray = new Dictionary<string, int>() { { "ButtonRMP20", 20 }, { "ButtonRMP15", 15 }, { "ButtonRMP10", 10 }, { "ButtonRMP5", 5 } };
    private Dictionary<string, int> MaxChipsRPArray = new Dictionary<string, int>() { { "ButtonRPC20", 20 }, { "ButtonRPC15", 15 }, { "ButtonRPC10", 10 }, { "ButtonRPC5", 5 } };
    private Dictionary<string, int> QuestionSerieRPArray = new Dictionary<string, int>() { { "ButtonRPQ20", 20 }, { "ButtonRPQ15", 15 }, { "ButtonRPQ10", 10 }, { "ButtonRPQ5", 5 } };

    public List<string> DictionaryList = new List<string>() { "TableArray", "ParArray", "MaxChipsRPArray", "QuestionSerieRPArray" };

I would like to do something like that

foreach (var dictionnary in DictionaryList)
        {
            foreach (var buttonName in dictionnary.Keys)
            {
                DoSomething();
            }
        }

Is there a way to do that?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 133

Answers (2)

user19858830
user19858830

Reputation:

The List<string> (DictionaryList) contains strings. Those strings are not variable identifiers (variable identifiers are not the same as C#/.NET strings; variable identifiers are lexical tokens in the C# language, being parsed by the C# compiler during the build of your program), and thus cannot be used to refer to some variable.[1]

Rather than maintaining strings in your DictionaryList, let it maintain the dictionaries itself:

private Dictionary<string, int> TableArray = ...
private Dictionary<string, int> ParArray = ...
private Dictionary<string, int> MaxChipsRPArray = ...
private Dictionary<string, int> QuestionSerieRPArray = ...

public List<Dictionary<string, int>> DictionaryList = new List<Dictionary<string, int>>()
{
    TableArray, ParArray, MaxChipsRPArray, QuestionSerieRPArray
};

If you need to access the dictionaries by some name provided as a string (regardless whether that name would correlate with the variable/field names) you can turn the list into a dictionary of dictionaries (mapping some name to each of your dictionaries) instead:

private Dictionary<string, int> TableArray = ...
private Dictionary<string, int> ParArray = ...
private Dictionary<string, int> MaxChipsRPArray = ...
private Dictionary<string, int> QuestionSerieRPArray = ...

public Dictionary<string, <Dictionary<string, int>>> Dictionaries =
    new Dictionary<string, <Dictionary<string, int>>>()
    {
        ["TableArray"] = TableArray,
        ["MaxChipsRPArray"] = MaxChipsRPArray,
        ["QuestionSerieRPArray"] = QuestionSerieRPArray
    };

...

foreach (var dictionary in Dictionaries.Values)
{
    foreach (var buttonName in dictionary.Keys)
    {
        DoSomething();
    }
}

You could then access an individual dictionary by name through the public Dictionaries field like this, for example:

var someDictionaryIWant = Dictionaries["MaxChipsRPArray"];
foreach (var buttonName in someDictionaryIWant.Keys)
{
    DoSomething();
}

[1] I just told a grey lie here. For fields and properties, it would be possible to access fields/properties by their field/property name given as a string through a mechanism called "reflection". But reflection is cumbersome (likely even complicated for inexperienced programmers), slow, does not play well with trimming or compiling into native code, is normally not applicable to local variables declared inside methods, etc... But i think it's doubtful that you are looking for some dirty hack-ish way to solve your problem when there are cleaner and more straightforward solutions to your problem.

Upvotes: 2

bartol44
bartol44

Reputation: 562

You are on a right track, however it would be hard to achieve by using variable names.

Use nested list, like this: List<Dictionary<string, int>> dictionaryList

Then add your dictionaries to the list, and iterate over them in the for each loop like you initially wanted to.

Upvotes: 1

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