Working with Collections in C#: A Guide to Efficient Data Management
Explore C#'s powerful collection classes for efficient data management. This tutorial compares arrays and collections, highlights the advantages of generic collections from `System.Collections.Generic`, and demonstrates common collection operations for effective data handling in your C# applications.
Working with Collections in C#
Introduction
Collections in C# provide ways to store, manage, and manipulate groups of objects. They offer more flexibility than arrays, allowing dynamic resizing and a variety of operations.
Advantages of Collections over Arrays
While arrays can store objects, collections offer several advantages:
- Dynamic Sizing: Collections can grow or shrink as needed; arrays have a fixed size.
- Built-in Functionality: Collections provide methods for adding, removing, searching, sorting, and other common operations.
Types of Collections in C#
C# provides several namespaces for working with collections. The `System.Collections.Generic` namespace is the most commonly used and recommended approach for modern C# development.
1. `System.Collections.Generic`
This namespace contains generic collection classes; generic collections are type-safe, meaning they only accept objects of a specific type, improving code safety and reducing errors.
| Class Name | Description |
|---|---|
List<T> |
A dynamic, ordered list of elements. |
Stack<T> |
A LIFO (Last-In, First-Out) stack. |
Queue<T> |
A FIFO (First-In, First-Out) queue. |
LinkedList<T> |
A doubly linked list. |
HashSet<T> |
A set of unique elements (unordered). |
SortedSet<T> |
A set of unique elements (sorted). |
Dictionary<TKey, TValue> |
A collection of key-value pairs. |
SortedDictionary<TKey, TValue> |
A collection of key-value pairs (sorted by key). |
SortedList<TKey, TValue> |
A sorted key-value pair collection (uses a different underlying data structure than SortedDictionary). |
2. `System.Collections` (Legacy)
This namespace contains non-generic collection classes. While functional, the `System.Collections.Generic` namespace is generally preferred in modern C# because it's type-safe.
(List of legacy classes from `System.Collections` would be included here.)
3. `System.Collections.Concurrent`
This namespace provides thread-safe collections. These are designed for situations where multiple threads might access and modify the collection concurrently, preventing data corruption.
(List of classes from `System.Collections.Concurrent` would be included here.)
Conclusion
C# offers a rich set of collection classes to handle various data structures and access patterns. Understanding the differences and choosing the appropriate collection is essential for efficient and reliable code.