Fast function to return a string based on a key, and vice versa

Question

I need a fast lookup function that will return a string based on an integer key, and also perform the oppose lookup (pass in string, return int).

Should I create 2 hashtables for this?

If your integer key is compact enough (mostly inclusive of 0 thru N) then I would use string[] or List to map the integers to the string. As others said, use the Dictionary for the reverse. — csharptest.net, Sep 22 '09 at 16:41

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 22 '09 at 16:36

5

Dictionary<int, string> lookup = new Dictionary<int, string>();
lookup.Add(1, "test1");
lookup.Add(2, "test2");
lookup.Add(3, "test3");

If you need to do fast lookups both ways, you could make 2 of them.

answered Sep 22 '09 at 16:36

Larsenal

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

4

A Dictionary is what you want, and plenty of related answers to help.

Though hardly a definitive answer without more information, will the strings be unique for instance?

edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

Community

answered Sep 22 '09 at 16:34

dove

2 Answers2