How do I cast this type into a Dictionary?

Question

I have the following code. It uses a class someone built to manage a specific file type called a plist. I am trying to take what it spits out to me and put it in a Dictionary.

Dictionary<string, IPropertyListDictionary> maindict = new Dictionary<string, IPropertyListDictionary>();
maindict = data["section0"].DictionaryItems;

The problem is that I get a red line under "DictionaryItems" with the following error:

Cannot implicitly convert type
 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair<string,CodeTitans.Core.Generics.IPropertyListItem>>' 
to
 'System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<string,CodeTitans.Core.Generics.IPropertyListDictionary>'. 
An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)

Can anyone help me correctly cast this? Thanks.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2636603/recreating-a-dictionary-from-an-ienumerable — Preston Guillot, Feb 08 '12 at 22:58

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 08 '12 at 23:42

4

Try using this

Dictionary<string, IPropertyListDictionary> maindict = (data["section0"].DictionaryItems).ToDictionary(x => x.Key, x => x.Value);

edited Feb 08 '12 at 23:42

Adi Lester

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answered Feb 08 '12 at 22:58

MyKuLLSKI

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4

You are creating a new dictionary instance in your first line for no reason at all. It should be just `Dictionary maindict = (data["section0"].DictionaryItems).ToDictionary(x => x.Key, x => x.Value); ` – Adi Lester Feb 08 '12 at 23:11

score -2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 08 '12 at 23:06

You can't cast it, but you can convert it by writing your own loop or using the ToDictionary() extension method in Linq.

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

// ...
Dictionary<string, IPropertyListDictionary> mainDictionary = data["section0"].DictionaryItems.ToDictionary();

How do I cast this type into a Dictionary?

2 Answers2