Question

I have created a Dictionary in Application scope, but I’m not sure how to correctly access it in another page.

  void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) 
{

    Application["PaginationTable"] = new Dictionary<int, int>();

    Dictionary<int, int> dictPagination = new Dictionary<int, int>();

    //fill dict
    for (int i = 0; i < 40; i++)
    {
        etc
    }

    Application["PaginationTable"] = dictPagination;

}

In myotherpage.cs

 foreach (KeyValuePair<int, int> pair in Application["PaginationTable"])
  {

      Response.Write(pair.Key +" :: " + pair.Value  + "<br>");
      etc
  }

The error generated is:
“foreach statement cannot operate on variables of type ‘object’ because ‘object’ does not contain a public definition for ‘GetEnumerator'”

The gist is that I need to create a Dictionary to hold a table of value/pair data that will not change and will need accessing/compared by different sections of the website.

Help appreciated

Answer 1

As Application can store many different types, it has to store them as Object, the parent class all types are inherited from. You need to cast the Application["PaginationTable"] to the correct type, i.e. Dictionary<int, int> that foreach can operate on. i.e.:

foreach (KeyValuePair<int, int> pair in (Dictionary<int, int>)Application["PaginationTable"])

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Note that to save typing KeyValuePair<int, int> can be replaced with var, as the compiler can work out the correct type at compile time.

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Also note that the line

Application["PaginationTable"] = new Dictionary<int, int>();

is redundant as you just assign another object to it lower down.