Is there any way I can iterate backwards (in reverse) through a SortedDictionary in c#?
Or is there a way to define the SortedDictionary in descending order to begin with?
Is there any way I can iterate backwards (in reverse) through a SortedDictionary in c#?
Or is there a way to define the SortedDictionary in descending order to begin with?
The SortedDictionary itself doesn't support backward iteration, but you have several possibilities to achieve the same effect.
Use .Reverse
-Method (Linq). (This will have to pre-compute the whole dictionary output but is the simplest solution)
var Rand = new Random();
var Dict = new SortedDictionary<int, string>();
for (int i = 1; i <= 10; ++i) {
var newItem = Rand.Next(1, 100);
Dict.Add(newItem, (newItem * newItem).ToString());
}
foreach (var x in Dict.Reverse()) {
Console.WriteLine("{0} -> {1}", x.Key, x.Value);
}
Make the dictionary sort in descending order.
class DescendingComparer<T> : IComparer<T> where T : IComparable<T> {
public int Compare(T x, T y) {
return y.CompareTo(x);
}
}
// ...
var Dict = new SortedDictionary<int, string>(new DescendingComparer<int>());
Use SortedList<TKey, TValue>
instead. The performance is not as good as the dictionary's (O(n) instead of O(logn)), but you have random-access at the elements like in arrays. When you use the generic IDictionary-Interface, you won't have to change the rest of your code.
Edit :: Iterating on SortedLists
You just access the elements by index!
var Rand = new Random();
var Dict = new SortedList<int, string>();
for (int i = 1; i <= 10; ++i) {
var newItem = Rand.Next(1, 100);
Dict.Add(newItem, (newItem * newItem).ToString());
}
// Reverse for loop (forr + tab)
for (int i = Dict.Count - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
Console.WriteLine("{0} -> {1}", Dict.Keys[i], Dict.Values[i]);
}
The easiest way to define the SortedDictionary in the reverse order to start with is to provide it with an IComparer<TKey>
which sorts in the reverse order to normal.
Here's some code from MiscUtil which might make that easier for you:
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace MiscUtil.Collections
{
/// <summary>
/// Implementation of IComparer{T} based on another one;
/// this simply reverses the original comparison.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
public sealed class ReverseComparer<T> : IComparer<T>
{
readonly IComparer<T> originalComparer;
/// <summary>
/// Returns the original comparer; this can be useful
/// to avoid multiple reversals.
/// </summary>
public IComparer<T> OriginalComparer
{
get { return originalComparer; }
}
/// <summary>
/// Creates a new reversing comparer.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="original">The original comparer to
/// use for comparisons.</param>
public ReverseComparer(IComparer<T> original)
{
if (original == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("original");
}
this.originalComparer = original;
}
/// <summary>
/// Returns the result of comparing the specified
/// values using the original
/// comparer, but reversing the order of comparison.
/// </summary>
public int Compare(T x, T y)
{
return originalComparer.Compare(y, x);
}
}
}
You'd then use:
var dict = new SortedDictionary<string, int>
(new ReverseComparer<string>(StringComparer.InvariantCulture));
(or whatever type you were using).
If you only ever want to iterate in one direction, this will be more efficient than reversing the ordering afterwards.
There is also a very simple approach if you are dealing with numeric values as the key which is to simply negate them when you create the dictionary.
Briefly create a reversed sorted dictionary in one line.
var dict = new SortedDictionary<int, int>(Comparer<int>.Create((x, y) => y.CompareTo(x)));
There's a way to create a IComparer<T>
using System.Collections.Generic.Comparer<T>
. Just pass a IComparision<T>
delegate to its Create
method to build a IComparer<T>
.
var dict = new SortedDictionary<int, TValue>(
Comparer<int>.Create(
delegate(int x, int y)
{
return y.CompareTo(x);
}
)
);
You can use a lambda expression/local function/method to replace the delegate if their significance are (TKey, TKey) => int
.
If you're using .NET 3.5, you can use the OrderByDescending extension method:
var dictionary = new SortedDictionary<int, string>();
dictionary.Add(1, "One");
dictionary.Add(3, "Three");
dictionary.Add(2, "Two");
dictionary.Add(4, "Four");
var q = dictionary.OrderByDescending(kvp => kvp.Key);
foreach (var item in q)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.Key + " , " + item.Value);
}