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c#dictionarycollectionsc#-6.0collection-initializer

What benefits does dictionary initializers add over collection initializers?


In a recent past there has been a lot of talk about whats new in C# 6.0
One of the most talked about feature is using Dictionary initializers in C# 6.0
But wait we have been using collection initializers to initialize the collections and can very well initialize a Dictionary also in .NET 4.0 and .NET 4.5 (Don't know about old version) like

Dictionary<int, string> myDict = new Dictionary<int, string>() {
    { 1,"Pankaj"},
    { 2,"Pankaj"},
    { 3,"Pankaj"}
};

So what is there new in C# 6.0, What Dictionary Initializer they are talking about in C# 6.0


Solution

  • While you could initialize a dictionary with collection initializers, it's quite cumbersome. Especially for something that's supposed to be syntactic sugar.

    Dictionary initializers are much cleaner:

    var myDict = new Dictionary<int, string>
    {
        [1] = "Pankaj",
        [2] = "Pankaj",
        [3] = "Pankaj"
    };
    

    More importantly these initializers aren't just for dictionaries, they can be used for any object supporting an indexer, for example List<T>:

    var array = new[] { 1, 2, 3 };
    var list = new List<int>(array) { [1] = 5 };
    foreach (var item in list)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(item);
    }
    

    Output:

    1
    5
    3