c# equivalent to php associative array?

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C# associative array

ive decided to learn c# recently. ive done some php before. i see c# has dictionaries. thats equivalent to an associative array in php right? as far as i can tell the dictionary doesnt maintain insertion order like php associative arrays right? is there some other equivalent i should use if insertion order is important?

thanks

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 23 '09 at 12:22

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Dictionary doesn't guarantee to preserve insertion order, so no: you can't rely on that (although it is hard to force it to break this). If insertion order is important, you would need to create a hybrid class, perhaps encapsulating a List<T> for the inserted order, and a Dictionary<TKey,T> for the indexing.

answered Feb 23 '09 at 12:22

Marc Gravell

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Java has one (LinkedHashMap). There's really no equivalent in C#? – cletus Feb 23 '09 at 12:45
@cletus: No. there's really no equivalent in the core .NET framework. @Marc: It's not that hard to force it. I can't remember it offhand, admittedly... it's in a post somewhere, I think. – Jon Skeet Feb 23 '09 at 13:51
if you tend to get ordering with a hashtable it implies your hash function is crap and your O(1) is at risk. you should have close to random insertion position for any bucket... – ShuggyCoUk Feb 24 '09 at 00:53

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 28 '11 at 00:03

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You might want to check out Power Collections. I believe they have implementations that would suit your needs.

edited Sep 28 '11 at 00:03

answered Feb 23 '09 at 12:22

Kent Boogaart

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 01 '10 at 21:19

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PHP associative arrays are converted to type XmlRpcStruct. See the XML-RPC spec.

In C#, use XmlRpcStruct or struct to represent PHP associative arrays.

This is a tested solution, not an offhand suggestion.

answered Dec 01 '10 at 21:19

Dan Hermes

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 23 '09 at 14:40

There is an OrderedDictionary class in the System.Collections.Specialized namespace, but it's unfortunately not generic.

There is no built-in, generic dictionary class that preserves insertion order. If insertion order is really important, you'll have to roll your own or check out a third party implementation (as Marc & Kent suggested).

c# equivalent to php associative array?

4 Answers4