Question

I have an issue where I need to map two inputs to a single output.

I’m aware that a dictionary is a generically typed linear mapping:

for every x (key) there may be a y (value)

What I need is a multi-dimensional mapping:

for every x,y (key) there may be a z (value)

But of course the kicker is that I need it to support generic typing and be dynamically sized.

Does this data-structure exist in C#, or do I have to create a dictionary of dictionaries? I’d rather not reinvent the wheel if I don’t have to.

---

Reinventing the wheel:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace zlib.Collections
{
    public class Dictionary3D<Tx, Ty, Tz>
    {
        private Dictionary<Tuple<Tx, Ty>, Tz> _dict = new Dictionary<Tuple<Tx, Ty>, Tz>();

        public void Add(Tx x, Ty y, Tz z)
        {
            _dict.Add(Tuple.Create<Tx, Ty>(x, y), z);
        }

        public void Clear()
        {
            _dict.Clear();
        }

        public bool ContainsKey(Tx x, Ty y)
        {
            return _dict.ContainsKey(Tuple.Create<Tx, Ty>(x, y));
        }

        public bool ContainsValue(Tz z)
        {
            return _dict.ContainsValue(z);
        }

        public Dictionary<Tuple<Tx, Ty>, Tz>.Enumerator GetEnumerator()
        {
            return _dict.GetEnumerator();
        }

        public bool Remove(Tx x, Ty y)
        {
            return _dict.Remove(Tuple.Create<Tx, Ty>(x, y));
        }

        public bool TryGetValue(Tx x, Ty y, out Tz z)
        {
            return _dict.TryGetValue(Tuple.Create<Tx, Ty>(x, y), out z);
        }

        public int Count
        {
            get { return _dict.Count; }
        }

        public Dictionary<Tuple<Tx,Ty>,Tz>.KeyCollection Keys
        {
            get
            {
                return _dict.Keys;
            }
        }

        public Dictionary<Tuple<Tx, Ty>, Tz>.ValueCollection Values
        {
            get
            {
                return _dict.Values;
            }
        }

        public Tz this[Tx x, Ty y]
        {
            get
            {
                return _dict[Tuple.Create<Tx, Ty>(x, y)];
            }
            set
            {
                _dict[Tuple.Create<Tx, Ty>(x, y)] = value;
            }
        }
    }
}

It seems like reinventing the wheel is winning out among responses. This is the code I’ve come up with so far, but I feel like there should be a better way, like a matrix or something.

Answer 1

what about

   Dictionary<Tuple<T,K>,Tuple<L,J>> 

??