.NET Dictionary vs Class properties

Question

Coming from a web development background (javascript), collections like dictionaries are often implemented as objects because their properties can be referenced by association:

// Javascript example

var myDictionary = {

  namevalue1 : "value1",

  namevalue2 : "value2"

}



console.log( myDictionary.namevalue1 );    // "value1"

console.log( myDictionary["namevalue1"] ); // "value1"

I'm writing C# now and I'd like to know if the proper way to store string values for lookup is in a singleton class or in a generic dictionary. I like that classes are strongly typed and give intellisense support, but I'm anticipating a lot of changes and maintaining class properties vs. simply calling Dictionary methods seems like a headache. Are the performance benefits so great that I should choose one over the other?

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Answer 1

In fact, a class would be several orders of magnitude faster than a Dictionary. If you feel it's more convenient, that's even better :) So if you're able to make classes for it, do so. If the objects you represent really should be classes (i.e. are fundamentally objects and not key/value pairs) then all the more reason.

.NET Dictionary vs Class properties

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