Question

I have a scenario where I have a custom mapping class.

I would like to be able to create the new instance and declare data for it at the same time and implement a syntax similar to:

    public static HybridDictionary Names = new HybridDictionary()        
    { 
        {People.Dave, "Dave H."},
        {People.Wendy, "Wendy R."}
    }

and so on. How do I define my class to enable this kind of syntax?

Answer 1

What you are trying to acheive is a Collection Initializer

Your HybridDictionary class need to implement IEnumerable<> and have an Add method like this:

public void Add(People p, string name)
{
    ....
}

Then your instanciation should work.

Note: By convention, the key should be the first parameter followed by the value (i.e. void Add(string key, People value).