Question

I am wanting to store key – value data and be able to access it in an efficient manner.

Basically: I have a custom object(EquipmentObj) and w/ in that object is a property called “DeviceType”. In the constructor of the object, I am passing a string which goes out to a Dictionary (Local Variable of EquipmentObj) and returns a value if the Dictionary has the key.

In an attempt to minimize initializing the Dictionary 25 times on the heap, (EquipmentObj is instantiated 25-50 times) I am wondering if there is a more efficient way to do this.

My first thought was XML, but I can’t add deserialization; I wont get into this.

My next thought was possibly using a static class. But I still need to define the KeyValuePair or Dictionary and static classes cant have instance members.

What would you all suggest?

Here is a sample of what I am basically doing right now.

class EquipmentObj
    {
        public EquipmentObj(string deviceType)
        {
            addItems(); 
            this.DeviceType = EquipmentList.ContainsKey(device_Type) ? EquipmentList[deviceType] : "Default";
        }
        public string DeviceType { get; set; }
        private Dictionary<string, string> EquipmentList = new Dictionary<string, string>();

        private void addItems()
        {
            //Add items to Dictionary 
        }
    }

Answer 1

A static class can’t have instance members, but a non-static class can have static members. You can make EquipmentList and addItems() both static without changing EquipmentObj itself.

class EquipmentObj
{
    public EquipmentObj(string deviceType)
    {
        addItems(); 
        this.DeviceType = EquipmentList.ContainsKey(device_Type) ? EquipmentList[deviceType] : "Default";
    }
    public string DeviceType { get; set; }
    private static Dictionary<string, string> EquipmentList = new Dictionary<string, string>();

    public static void addItems()
    {
        //Add items to Dictionary 
    }
}

You’d call it as:

EquipmentObj.addItems();