Question

I am writing a parser which calls some functions dependent on some value.

I can implement this logic with simple switch like this:

switch(some_val)   
{   
    case 0:   
        func0();   
        break;   
    case 1:   
        func1();   
        break;   
}     

or with delegates and a dictionary like this:

delegate void some_delegate();   
Dictionary<int, some_delegate> some_dictionary = new Dictionary<int, some_delegate>();   
some_dictionary[0] = func0;   
some_dictionary[1] = func1;   

some_dictionary[some_value].Invoke();    

Are these two methods equivalent and which is preferred?

Answer 1

In terms of access, they’re identical: both just check if that specific value has a corresponding result. However, a Dictionary will throw an out-of-bounds exception if you try to access a non-existent key.

The choice should primarily be on re-usability. If you only need to make this branching logic at one point, then using a switch-case is probably makes more sense than storing a variable. If you need to access it repeatedly in separate points, then use the Dictionary to save yourself from just re-pasting the switch-statement repeatedly.