Question

I would like to know the most optimal/elegant solution of doing this. Basically i have 3 groups of data.
Each of the groups are inside another in a hierarchy. I’m using a dictionary within a dictionary to achieve this. Sample Code:

Dictionary<string,Dictionary<string,List<string>>> pro = new Dictionary<string,Dictionary<string,List<string>>>();
        Dictionary<string,List<string>> part = new Dictionary<string,List<string>>();
        List<string> foo = new List<string>();
        List<string> bar = new List<string>();
        foo.Add("foo1");
        foo.Add("foo2");
        foo.Add("foo3");

        bar.Add("bar1");
        bar.Add("bar2");
        bar.Add("bar3");

        part.Add("Part1", foo);
        part.Add("Part2", bar);
        pro.Add("First", part);

        foreach (var pros in pro)
        {
            foreach (var parts in pros.Value)
            {
                foreach (var foos in parts.Value)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(foos);
                }
            }
        }

I’m still new to c#, even though my code is working i still feel that there is a more elegant solution. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

you could use collection initializers for the construction part and LINQ for the print part.

Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string,List<string>>> pro = new Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string,List<string>>>()
{
    { "First", new Dictionary<string,List<string>>()
        {
            { "Part1", new List<string>() { "foo1", "foo2", "foo3" } },
            { "Part2", new List<string>() { "bar1", "bar2", "bar3" } }
        }
    }
};

EDIT: provided new link for LINQ referring to another useful related post on stackoverflow.