Question

I have a dictionary of (string, integer). I need to order the dictionary by integer first, then use each integer value in a loop.
For instance, the dictionary contains cat 2, dog 1, rat 3…ordered would be dog 1, cat 2, rat 3. Then I would get the first value, 1, perform some functions with it, get the next value 2, perform some functions with it, and so on until the end of the dictionary.

So far I have:

Dim ordered = newdictionary.OrderBy(Function(x) x.Value)
   ordered.Select(Function(x) x.Value)

What is a good way to accomplish this?

Answer 1

This seems to be what you actually want:

For Each value In newdictionary.Values.OrderBy(Function(i) i)
    ' do something with the value '
Next

Now you’re looping the ordered int values of the dictionary

Dictionary<TKey, TValue>.Values Property

Edit according to your comment you want to include the index to check if the next element equals the current:

Dim values = newdictionary.Values.
    Select(Function(i, index) New With {.Num = i, .Index = index}).
    OrderBy(Function(x) x.Num)
For Each value In values
    Dim nextElement = values.ElementAtOrDefault(value.Index + 1)
    If nextElement Is Nothing OrElse nextElement.Num <> value.Num Then
        ' next value is different or last element
    Else
        ' next number same 
    End If
Next