How to construct an instance of Dictionary<string, List<string>>

Question

I am trying to code in C#, but I find that I can't construct an instance in this way like C++:

Dictionary<string, List<string>> FirSet =
    new Dictionary<string, List<string>>() {
        { "a", {"ab", "abc"} },
        { "b", {"bc", "bcd"} }
    };

Answer 1

    var firSet =
        new Dictionary<string, List<string>>()
        {
            { "a", new List<string>() {"ab", "abc"} },
            { "b", new List<string>() {"bc", "bcd"} }
        };

You can also use the C# 6.0 syntax:

    var firSet =
        new Dictionary<string, List<string>>()
        {
            ["a"] = new List<string> {"ab", "abc"},
            ["b"] = new List<string> {"bc", "bcd"}
        };

And if you feel particularly lazy and you don't want to type all these new List<string> you can always do this:

    var firSet =
        new Dictionary<string, string[]>()
        {
            { "a", new[] {"ab", "abc"} },
            { "b", new[] {"bc", "bcd"} }
        }
        .ToDictionary(i => i.Key, i => i.Value.ToList());