Question

I know:

Application settings can be stored as any data type that is XML serializable or has a TypeConverter that implements ToString/FromString. The most common types are String, Integer, and Boolean, but you can also store values as Color, Object, or as a connection string.

I have a ListDictionary class setting – which is serializable but everytime I start up my app again it is null despite creating, assigning and saving a ListDictionary to my settings:

Properties.Settings.Default.Preferences = new System.Collections.Specialized.ListDictionary();
Properties.Settings.Default.Preferences.Add(1, "test");
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();

How can I use such a class as an application setting? I need a dictionary type collection as a setting…

Answer 1

There are a set of things i would like you to try.

1. make sure you create the settings scope as USER .

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730869(v=vs.80).aspx
add 2 strings(DictionaryKey and Dictionaryvalue) to the settings and set the scope as user and value as blank

1. Settings doesn’t contain an option to add Dictionary . So what i would suggest is try this code

make 2 sting settings and do this

Properties.Settings.Default.Dictionarykey = "";// To empty previous settings 
Properties.Settings.Default.Dictionaryvalue = "";// To empty previous settings 
for (int i = 0; i < yourdictionarycount; i++ )
{
Properties.Settings.Default.Dictionarykey += i + "#";  // or any other value                
Properties.Settings.Default.Dictionaryvalue += "test" + "#";  // or any other value                
}
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();

And when you are retrieving the values

use this code:

public Dictionary<int, string> savedsettings = new Dictionary<int, string>();

string[] eachkey = Properties.Settings.Default.Dictionarykey.Split('#');
string[] value = Properties.Settings.Default.Dictionaryvalue.Split('#');

for (int j = 0; j < eachkey.Length; j++)
{
  savedsettings.Add(eachkey[i], eachvalue[i]);
}
//just to check if the values are being retrieved properly 
Messagebox.Show(Properties.Settings.Default.Dictionarykey);

Regards,

Vivek Sampara