Is there a way to retrieve first n elements from a Dictionary in C#?
Dictionaries are not ordered per se, you can't rely on the "first" actually meaning that. From MSDN: "For enumeration... The order in which the items are returned is undefined."
You may be able to use an OrderedDictionary depending on your platform version, and it's not a particularly complex thing to create as a custom descendant class of Dictionary.
Oftentimes omitting the cast to dictionary won't work:
dictionary = dictionary.Take(n);
And neither will a simple case like this:
dictionary = dictionary.Take(n).ToDictionary();
The surest method is an explicit cast:
dictionary = dictionary.Take(n).ToDictionary(kvp => kvp.Key, kvp => kvp.Value);
Note that there's no explicit ordering for a Dictionary, so although the following code will return n items, there's no guarantee as to how the framework will determine which n items to return.
using System.Linq;
yourDictionary.Take(n);
The above code returns an IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<TKey,TValue>> containing n items. You can easily convert this to a Dictionary<TKey,TValue> like so:
yourDictionary.Take(n).ToDictionary();
You can't really take the first N elements from a Dictionary<TKey,TValue> because it is not an ordered collection. So it really has no concept of First, Last, etc ... But as others have pointed out, if you just want to take N elements regardless of order the LINQ take function works fine
var map = GetTheDictionary();
var firstFive = map.Take(5);
Could use Linq for example?
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, int>();
/// Add items to dictionary
foreach(var item in dictionary.Take(5))
{
// Do something with the first 5 pairs in the dictionary
}
Related
I have an IEnumerable of objects which I need to turn into a filtered dictionary. The key of the dictionary must be the object's name and the value must be one of its properties. I do so using LINQ's ToString method:
// dataPoints is of type IEnumerable
var filteredDictionary = dataPoints.Where(d => d.TypeName == typeNameOfInterest).ToDictionary(d => d.Name, d => d.Identifier)
I eventually turn the dictionary into a string as follows:
string.Join(Environment.NewLine, filteredDictionary.Select(d => $"{d.Key} : {d.Value};").ToArray()))
This works and the order of the elements in the string is the same as the order in the IEnumerable. I think that is what the documentation means by stating the following about the returned dictionary
The values within each group are in the same order as in source
Now, I need to get the first element from the dictionary. By first I mean the first one listed in the original IEnumerable. How would I need to do this? Can I rely on LINQ's first method to do so and be sure that it is the correct one? Would I need to construct a SortedDictionary before getting the first element?
I'm using the .NET Framework 4.7.2 and I never modify the content of the dictionary that I receive from ToDictionary.
Suppose I have a List:
MyList = new List<MyEntity>();
then I try to add item to the list. Each item loaded by WCF RIA Service with async call.
I want MyList always sorted by a property of MyEntity, say it's ID, after any new item added,
How to resolve this issue?
You can use SortedSet to keep it sorted
SortedSet<int> x = new SortedSet<int>();
x.Add(5);
x.Add(1);
x.Add(23);
x.Add(51);
foreach (var i in x)
Console.WriteLine(i);
will print
1
5
23
51
You can use either
Mylist.Sort();
or
MyList.OrderBy();
Probably the latter would be better for you to specify a property
MyList.OrderBy(x => x.ID);
As others have said, this is not efficient and a SortedSet would be the better choice, but if changing the type is not an option, then this is one possibility.
List<T> is not a sorted container, and keeping it ordered by calling sort after insert is not the best way to do it. Use a container which is sorted by definition instead, such as a tree based collection or SortedSet
If it is very important that you use a List<Entity> collection then you can use BinarySearch to locate position.
int index = MyList.BinarySearch(newMyEntity, yourComparer);
if (index < 0)
MyList.Insert(~index, newMyEntity);
else
// An identical item has been found.
yourComparer is an instance of a IComparer<MyEntity>. You can avoid it if MyEntity implements the IComparable<MyEntity> interface.
Please note that the Insert-statement is rather inefficient, expect performance like O(n/2).
Hope this will help you in your quest.
I have the presumably common problem of having elements that I wish to place in 2 (or more) lists. However sometimes I want to find an element that could be in one of the lists. Now there is more than one way of doing this eg using linq or appending, but all seem to involve the unnecessary creation of an extra list containing all the elements of the separate lists and hence waste processing time.
So I was considering creating my own generic FindinLists class which would take 2 lists as its constructor parameters would provide a Find() and an Exists() methods. The Find and Exists methods would only need to search the second or subsequent lists if the item was not found in the first list. The FindInLists class could be instantiated in the getter of a ( no setter)property. A second constructor for the FindInLists class could take an array of lists as its parameter.
Is this useful or is there already a way to search multiple lists without incurring the wasteful overhead of the creation of a super list?
You could use the LINQ Concat function.
var query = list1.Concat(list2).Where(x => x.Category=="my category");
Linq already has this functionality by virtue of the FirstOrDefault method. It uses deferred execution so will stream from any input and will short circuit the return when a matching element is found.
var matched = list1.Concat(list2).FirstOrDefault(e => element.Equals(e));
Update
BaseType matched = list1.Concat(list2).Concat(list3).FirstOrDefault(e => element.Equals(e));
I believe IEnumerable<T>.Concat() is what you need. It doesn't create an extra list, it only iterates through the given pair of collections when queried
Concat() uses deferred execution, so at the time it's called it only creates an iterator which stores the reference to both concatenated IEnumerables. At the time the resulting collection is enumerated, it iterates through first and then through the second.
Here's the decompiled code for the iterator - no rocket science going on there:
private static IEnumerable<TSource> ConcatIterator<TSource>(IEnumerable<TSource> first, IEnumerable<TSource> second)
{
foreach (TSource iteratorVariable0 in first)
{
yield return iteratorVariable0;
}
foreach (TSource iteratorVariable1 in second)
{
yield return iteratorVariable1;
}
}
When looking to the docs for Concat(), I've stumbled across another alternative I didn't know - SelectMany. Given a collection of collections it allows you to work with the children of all parent collections at once like this:
IEnumerable<string> concatenated = new[] { firstColl, secondColl }
.SelectMany(item => item);
you can do something like this:
var list1 = new List<int>{1,2,3,4,5,6,7};
var list2 = new List<int>{0,-3,-4,2};
int elementToPush = 4;//value to find among available lists
var exist = list1.Exists(i=>i==elementToPush) || list2.Exists(j=>j==elementToPush);
If at least one collection required element exists, result is false, otherwise it's true.
One row and no external storage creation.
Hope this helps.
You could probably just create a List of lists and then use linq on that list. It is still creating a new List but it is a list of references rather than duplicating the contents of all the lists.
List<string> a = new List<string>{"apple", "aardvark"};
List<string> b = new List<string>{"banana", "bananananana", "bat"};
List<string> c = new List<string>{"cat", "canary"};
List<string> d = new List<string>{"dog", "decision"};
List<List<string>> super = new List<List<string>> {a,b,c,d};
super.Any(x=>x.Contains("apple"));
the Any call should return after the first list returns true so as requested will not process later lists if it finds it in an earlier list.
Edit: Having written this I prefer the answers using Concat but I leave this here as an alternative if you want something that might be more aesthetically pleasing. ;-)
My dictionary:
Dictionary<double, string> dic = new Dictionary<double, string>();
How can I return the last element in my dictionary?
What do you mean by Last? Do you mean Last value added?
The Dictionary<TKey,TValue> class is an unordered collection. Adding and removing items can change what is considered to be the first and last element. Hence there is no way to get the Last element added.
There is an ordered dictionary class available in the form of SortedDictionary<TKey,TValue>. But this will be ordered based on comparison of the keys and not the order in which values were added.
EDIT
Several people have mentioned using the following LINQ style approach
var last = dictionary.Values.Last();
Be very wary about using this method. It will return the last value in the Values collection. This may or may not be the last value you added to the Dictionary. It's probably as likely to not be as it is to be.
Dictionaries are unordered collections - as such, there is no concept of a first or last element. If you are looking for a class that behaves like a dictionary but maintains the insertion order of items, consider using OrderedDictionary.
If you are looking for a collection that sorts the items, consider using SortedDictionary<TKey,TValue>.
If you have an existing dictionary, and you are looking for the 'last' element given some sort order, you could use linq to sort the collection, something like:
myDictionary.Values.OrderBy( x => x.Key ).Last();
By wary of using Dictionary.Keys.Last() - while the key list is sorted using the default IComparer for the type of the key, the value you get may not be the value you expect.
I know this question is too old to get any upvotes, but I didn't like any of the answers so will post my own in the hopes of offering another option to future readers.
Assuming you want the highest key value in a dictionary, not the last inserted:
The following did not work for me on .NET 4.0:
myDictionary.Values.OrderBy( x => x.Key ).Last();
I suspect the problem is that the 'x' represents a value in the dictionary, and a value has no key (the dictionary stores the key, the dictionary values do not). I may also be making a mistake in my usage of the technique.
Either way, this solution would be slow for large dictionaries, probably O(n log n) for CS folks, because it is sorting the entire dictionary just to get one entry. That's like rearranging your entire DVD collection just to find one specific movie.
var lastDicVal = dic.Values.Last();
is well established as a bad idea. In practice, this solution may return the last value added to the dictionary (not the highest key value), but in software engineering terms that is meaningless and should not be relied upon. Even if it works every time for the rest of eternity, it represents a time bomb in your code that depends on library implementation detail.
My solution is as follows:
var lastValue = dic[dic.Keys.Max()];
The Keys.max() function is much faster than sorting O(n) instead of O(n log n).
If performance is important enough that even O(n) is too slow, the last inserted key can be tracked in a separate variable used to replace dic.Keys.Max(), which will make the entire lookup as fast as it can be, or O(1).
Note: Use of double or float as a key is not best practice and can yield surprising results which are beyond the scope of this post. Read about "epsilon" in the context of float/double values.
If you're using .NET 3.5, look at:
dic.Keys.Last()
If you want a predictable order, though, use:
IDictionary<int, string> dic = new SortedDictionary<int, string>();
Instead of using:
Dictionary<double, string>
...you could use:
List<KeyValuePair<double, string>>
This would allow you to use the indexer to access the element by order instead of by key.
Consider creating a custom collection that contains a reference in the Add method of the custom collection. This would set a private field containing the last added key/value(or both) depending on your requirements.
Then have a Last() method that returns this. Here's a proof of concept class to show what I mean (please don't knock the lack of interface implementation etc- it is sample code):
public class LastDictionary<TKey, TValue>
{
private Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dict;
public LastDictionary()
{
dict = new Dictionary<TKey, TValue>();
}
public void Add(TKey key, TValue value)
{
LastKey = key;
LastValue = value;
dict.Add(key, value);
}
public TKey LastKey
{
get; private set;
}
public TValue LastValue
{
get; private set;
}
}
From the docs:
For purposes of enumeration, each item
in the dictionary is treated as a
KeyValuePair structure representing a
value and its key. The order in which
the items are returned is undefined.
So, I don't think you can rely on Dictionary to return the last element.
Use another collection. Maybe SortedDictionary ...
If you just want the value, this should work (assuming you can use LINQ):
dic.Values.Last()
You could use:
dic.Last()
But a dictionary doesn't really have a last element (the pairs inside aren't ordered in any particular way). The last item will always be the same, but it's not obvious which element it might be.
With .Net 3.5:
string lastItem = dic.Values.Last()
string lastKey = dic.Keys.Last()
...but keep in mind that a dictionary is not ordered, so you can't count on the fact that the values will remain in the same order.
A dictionary isn't meant to be accessed in order, so first, last have no meaning. Do you want the value indexed by the highest key?
Dictionary<double, string> dic = new Dictionary<double, string>();
double highest = double.MinValue;
string result = null;
foreach(double d in dic.keys)
{
if(d > highest)
{
result = dic[d];
highest = d;
}
}
Instead of using Linq like most of the other answers suggest, you can just access the last element of any Collection object via the Count property (see ICollection.Count Property for more information).
See the code here for an example of how to use count to access the final element in any Collection (including a Dictionary):
Dictionary<double, string> dic = new Dictionary<double, string>();
var lastElementIndex = dic.Count - 1;
var lastElement = dic[lastElementIndex];
Keep in mind that this returns the last VALUE, not the key.
I have a the following dictionary:
IDictionary<int, IList<MyClass>> myDictionary
and I am wanting to get all the values in the dictionary as an IList....
Just to add a bit of a background as to how I've gotten into this situation....
I have a method that gets me a list of MyClass. I then have another method that converts that list into a dictionary where they key is the id for MyClass. Later on...and without access to that original list...I'm needing to obtain the original ungrouped list of MyClass.
When I pass myDictionary.Values.ToList() to a method that takes an IList I get a compile error that says that it can't convert from
System.Collections.Generic.List<System.Collections.Generic.IList<MyClass>>
to:
System.Collections.Generic.IList<MyClass>
Now, I can understand that its gone and added each of the groups of IList to the new list as separate elements of the list....but in this instance its not really what I'm after. I just want a list of all the values in the entire dictionary.
How then can I get what I'm after without looping through each of the key values in the dictionary and creating the list I want?
Noticed a lot of answer were quite old.
This will also work:
using System.Linq;
dict.Values.ToList();
Because of how a dictionary (or hash table) is maintained this is what you would do. Internally the implementation contains keys, buckets (for collision handling) and values. You might be able to retrieve the internal value list but you're better of with something like this:
IDictionary<int, IList<MyClass>> dict;
var flattenList = dict.SelectMany( x => x.Value );
It should do the trick ;) SelectMany flattens the result which means that every list gets concatenated into one long sequence (IEnumerable`1).
A variation on John's suggestion:
var flattenedValues = dict.Values.SelectMany(x => x);
If you need them in a list, you can of course call ToList:
var flattenedList = dict.Values.SelectMany(x => x).ToList();
dictionary.values.toList();
if You want to get Sum just do
myDictionary.values.sum();
Values gets a ICollection containing the values of your dictionary. As implied by the definition of your dictionary, it can be defined as a ICollection<IList<MyClass>> collection. So if you really want a IList<IList<MyClass>>, use spacedog's solution.
If what you really want is a flat `IList', then there is no other solution than looping through each value :
IList<MyClass> l=new List<MyClass>();
foreach (IList<MyClass> v in myDictionary.Values)
l.AddRange(v);
Note that this is so grossly inefficient that you should think again about using a dictionary for what you are trying to achieve.