StringDictionary as a common static list?

Question

what I'm trying to do is have a project-wise static dictionary so I can access a single list from anywhere in my code.

Until now, I came up with this solution, a public static class with a public property:

public static class Common
{
    public static StringDictionary Domains
    {
        get
        {
            StringDictionary list = new StringDictionary();

            list.Add("212", "Location A");
            list.Add("555", "Location B");
            list.Add("747", "Location C");
            list.Add("000", "Location D");

            return list;
        }
    }
}

That I use in this way (I use it to replace the content of a cell in a gridview):

if (Common.Domains.ContainsKey(e.Row.Cells[5].Text))
{
    e.Row.Cells[5].Text = Common.Domains[e.Row.Cells[5].Text];
}
else
{
    e.Row.Cells[5].Text = "n/a";
}

But I don't know if this is an efficient solution, and/or if there are other (better) ways to do this... Can somebody give a hint?

Thanks in advance, Andrea.

Answer 1

You probably don't want to re-create the list every time the property is accessed. Move the construction into the static constructor:

public static class Common
{
    private static StringDictionary _domains;
    static Common()
    {
        _domains = new StringDictionary();
        _domains.Add("212", "Location A");
        _domains.Add("555", "Location B");
        _domains.Add("747", "Location C");
        _domains.Add("000", "Location D");
    }
    public static StringDictionary Domains
    {
        get
        {
            return _domains;
        }
    }
}

And you should be aware, that the dictionary returned is not read-only. So a client of this class could modify the collection (e.g. add/remove some entries).