Question

I have written this function to auto correct gender to M or F from different values in a string array. It works fine but my manager told me to use Dictionary which he said is more efficient. But I have no idea. Anyone like to help me to understand how this can be done ? Thanks.

    Public Function AutoGender(ByVal dt As DataTable) As DataTable        

    Dim Gender As String = ""
    Dim Mkeywords() As String = {"boy", "boys", "male", "man", "m", "men", "guy"}
    Dim Fkeywords() As String = {"girl", "girls", "female", "woman", "f", "women", "chick"}
    Dim row As DataRow
        For Each row In dt.Rows
            If Mkeywords.Contains(row("Gender").ToString.ToLower) Then
                Gender = "M"
                row("Gender") = Gender
            ElseIf Fkeywords.Contains(row("Gender").ToString.ToLower) Then
                Gender = "F"
                row("Gender") = Gender
            End If
        Next
    Return dt

    End Function

Answer 1

Here is an example how you could implement the Dictionary(Of String, String) to lookup whether this synonym is known or not:

Shared GenderSynonyms As Dictionary(Of String, String) = New Dictionary(Of String, String) From
    {{"boy", "M"}, {"boys", "M"}, {"male", "M"}, {"man", "M"}, {"m", "M"}, {"men", "M"}, {"guy", "M"},
     {"girl", "F"}, {"girls", "F"}, {"female", "F"}, {"woman", "F"}, {"f", "F"}, {"women", "F"}, {"chick", "F"}}

Public Function AutoGender(ByVal dt As DataTable) As DataTable
    If dt.Columns.Contains("Gender") Then
        For Each row As DataRow In dt.Rows
            Dim oldGender = row.Field(Of String)("Gender").ToLower
            Dim newGender As String = String.Empty
            If GenderSynonyms.TryGetValue(oldGender, newGender) Then
                row.SetField("Gender", newGender)
            End If
        Next
    End If
    Return dt
End Function

Note that i’ve used the collection initializer to fill the Dictionary that is a convenient way to use literals to initialize collections. You could also use the Add method.

Edit: Just another approach that might be more concise is using two HashSet(Of String), one for the male synonyms and one for the female:

Shared maleSynonyms As New HashSet(Of String) From
    {"boy", "boys", "male", "man", "m", "men", "guy"}
Shared femaleSynonyms As New HashSet(Of String) From
    {"girl", "girls", "female", "woman", "f", "women", "chick"}

Public Function AutoGender(ByVal dt As DataTable) As DataTable
    If dt.Columns.Contains("Gender") Then
        For Each row As DataRow In dt.Rows
            Dim oldGender = row.Field(Of String)("Gender").ToLower
            Dim newGender As String = String.Empty
            If maleSynonyms.Contains(oldGender) Then
                row.SetField("Gender", "M")
            ElseIf femaleSynonyms.Contains(oldGender) Then
                row.SetField("Gender", "F")
            End If
        Next
    End If
    Return dt
End Function

A HashSet must also be unique, so it cannot contain duplicate Strings (like the key in the Dictionary), but it’s not a key-value pair but only a set.