Easiest way to do this, perhaps from an extension method? :
var MyDic = new Dictionary<string,string>{ "key1", "val1", "key2", "val2", ...};
Where the dictionary winds up with entries contain key and value pairs from the simple list of strings, alternating every other string being the key and values.
The alternation is a bit of a pain. Personally I'd just do it longhand:
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();
for (int index = 0; index < list.Count; index += 2)
{
dictionary[list[index]] = list[index + 1];
}
You definitely can do it with LINQ, but it would be more complicated - I love using LINQ when it makes things simpler, but sometimes it's just not a great fit.
(Obviously you can wrap that up into an extension method.)
Note that you can use dictionary.Add(list[index], list[index + 1]) to throw an exception if there are duplicate keys - the above code will silently use the last occurrence of a particular key.
dictionary.Add(...) instead of dictionary[...] = ... has the advantage of throwing an appropriate exception when keys are duplicated.
You can use a range that is half the length of the list, and ToDictionary to create the dictionary from items from the list:
Dictionary<string, string> dictionary =
Enumerable.Range(0, list.Count / 2)
.ToDictionary(i => list[i * 2], i => list[i * 2 + 1]);
LINQ and GroupBy version:
var dict = source.Select((s, i) => new { s, i })
.GroupBy(x => x.i / 2)
.ToDictionary(g => g.First().s, g => g.Last().s);
If you need LINQ - you can Zip list to itself first:
var result = list.Where((item, id) => id % 2 == 0)
.Zip (list.Where((item, id) => id % 2 == 1),
(key, value) => new KeyValuePair<string,string>(key, value))
.ToDictionary(p => p.Key, p => p.Value);
nullor two keys are equal or the list has an odd length? Handling these issues will shape the code.