C# SortedDictionary

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In C#, SortedDictionary<TKey, TValue> is a generic class that represents a collection of key/value pairs, where the keys are sorted based on their natural order or a custom comparer. It is part of the System.Collections.Generic namespace.

Here’s an overview of the SortedDictionary<TKey, TValue> class:

  • It provides a key-value mapping, where each key must be unique within the collection.
  • Keys are sorted in ascending order by default, but you can provide a custom comparer to define a different sorting order.
  • It internally uses a red-black tree data structure to efficiently maintain the sorted order of the keys.
  • The key type (TKey) must implement the IComparable<TKey> interface, or you can provide a custom comparer during initialization.
  • The value type (TValue) can be any type.

Here’s an example of how to use SortedDictionary<TKey, TValue>:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Create a SortedDictionary with string keys and int values
        SortedDictionary<string, int> ages = new SortedDictionary<string, int>();

        // Add key/value pairs
        ages.Add("John", 30);
        ages.Add("Alice", 25);
        ages.Add("Bob", 35);

        // Access values by key
        Console.WriteLine(ages["John"]);  // Output: 30

        // Check if a key exists
        if (ages.ContainsKey("Alice"))
        {
            // Update the value for an existing key
            ages["Alice"] = 26;
        }

        // Iterate over key/value pairs
        foreach (var kvp in ages)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"{kvp.Key}: {kvp.Value}");
        }
        /*
        Output:
        Alice: 26
        Bob: 35
        John: 30
        */
    }
}

In the example above, we create a SortedDictionary<string, int> called ages, where the keys are strings representing names and the values are integers representing ages. We add some key/value pairs, access values by key, update a value, and iterate over the key/value pairs. The SortedDictionary automatically maintains the keys in sorted order based on the default comparison of string keys.