# Dictionaries

A dictionary represents a collection of keys and values. See MSDN Dictionary(Tkey, TValue) Class (opens new window).

# Create a dictionary filled with values

Dim extensions As New Dictionary(Of String, String) _
  from { { "txt", "notepad" },
  { "bmp", "paint" },
  { "doc", "winword" } }

This creates a dictionary and immediately fills it with three KeyValuePairs.

You can also add new values later on by using the Add method:

extensions.Add("png", "paint")

Note that the key (the first parameter) needs to be unique in the dictionary, otherwise an Exception will be thrown.

# Loop through a dictionary and print all entries

Each pair in the dictionary is an instance of KeyValuePair with the same type parameters as the Dictionary. When you loop through the dictionary with For Each, each iteration will give you one of the Key-Value Pairs stored in the dictionary.

For Each kvp As KeyValuePair(Of String, String) In currentDictionary
  Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", kvp.Key, kvp.Value)
Next

# Getting a dictionary value

You can get the value of an entry in the dictionary using the 'Item' property:

Dim extensions As New Dictionary(Of String, String) From {
    { "txt", "notepad" },
    { "bmp", "paint" },
    { "doc", "winword" }
}

Dim program As String = extensions.Item("txt") 'will be "notepad"

' alternative syntax as Item is the default property (a.k.a. indexer)
Dim program As String = extensions("txt") 'will be "notepad"

' other alternative syntax using the (rare)
' dictionary member access operator (a.k.a. bang operator)
Dim program As String = extensions!txt 'will be "notepad"

If the key is not present in the dictionary, a KeyNotFoundException will be thrown.

# Checking for key already in dictionary - data reduction

The ConstainsKey method is the way to know if a key already exists in the Dictionary.

This come in handy for data reduction. In the sample below, each time we encountner a new word, we add it as a key in the dictionary, else we increment the counter for this specific word.


Dim dic As IDictionary(Of String, Integer) = New Dictionary(Of String, Integer)

 Dim words As String() = Split(<big text source>," ", -1, CompareMethod.Binary)

 For Each str As String In words
     If dic.ContainsKey(str) Then
         dic(str) += 1
     Else
         dic.Add(str, 1)
     End If
 Next

XML reduction example : getting all the child nodes names and occurence in an branch of an XML document

Dim nodes As IDictionary(Of String, Integer) = New Dictionary(Of String, Integer)
Dim xmlsrc = New XmlDocument()
xmlsrc.LoadXml(<any text stream source>)

For Each xn As XmlNode In xmlsrc.FirstChild.ChildNodes 'selects the proper parent
    If nodes.ContainsKey(xn.Name) Then
        nodes(xn.Name) += 1
    Else
        nodes.Add(xn.Name, 1)
    End If
Next

← Enum Looping →