Find arrayelement and return associated value

Question

I have an array that is created dynamically depending on different parameters. Its items can be (e.g.) Item(0) = Colorado or Item(0) = Arkansas, Item(1) = Utah or Item(0) = Utah, Item(1) = Colorado, Item(2) = Arkansas. But every string occurs only once, so Item(0) = Colorado, Item(1) = Colorado is not possible.

What I try to get is an array with the shortversions of the statenames

Example: Starting Array: Item(0) = Colorado, Item(1) = Arkansas

New Array: Item(0) = Col, Item(1) = Ark

So, I need to store information as follows:

|Shortversion| Fullversion |
|:-----------|------------:|
| Col        |    Colorado |   
| Ark        |    Arkansas | 
| Uth        |        Utah |

So I was looking for a possibiltiy to store the information and get the full state names into another array.

I accomplished that by creating a datatable with the information. For each arrayelement I could find the shorthand version and return the fullname. But that is not a 'performance-oriented' solution. Could anyone help me finding a solution that has a better performance?

Tim Schmelter · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-14 09:20:50Z

1

But that is not a 'performance-oriented' solution

You could use a Dictionary<string, string>:

var states = new Dictionary<string, string>();
states.Add("Colorado", "Col");
// ...

string abbreviation = states["Colorado"]; // Col

In this example the key is the full name and the value is the short-version. Note that the keys must be unique, but that should be the case since you've mentioned that "every string occurs only once".

VB.NET:

Dim states As New Dictionary(Of string, string)
states.Add("Colorado", "Col")

Dim abbreviation As String = states("Colorado")

edited Aug 14, 2014 at 9:20

answered Aug 14, 2014 at 9:15

Tim Schmelter

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4 Comments

CodingDefined Over a year ago

but what if one need to have same shortversion for two fullversion, dictionary will not allow it?

Tim Schmelter Over a year ago

@CodingDefined: what's the problem? states.Values can contain dulicates.

CodingDefined Over a year ago

@TimSchmelter According to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k7z0zy8k(v=vs.110).aspx if you use same key for two values you will get ArgumentException : An element with the same key already exists in the Dictionary<TKey, TValue> Is there anything i am missing?

Tim Schmelter Over a year ago

@CodingDefined: the key is not the short-version but the value. The key(full-name of state) is unique as stated by OP.

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