Question

I’d like to do the same in C#. Is there anyway of using properties in C# with parameters in the same way I’ve done with the parameter ‘Key’ in this VB.NET example?

Private Shared m_Dictionary As IDictionary(Of String, Object) = New Dictionary(Of String, Object) 

Public Shared Property DictionaryElement(ByVal Key As String) As Object     Get         If m_Dictionary.ContainsKey(Key) Then             Return m_Dictionary(Key)         Else             Return [String].Empty         End If     End Get     Set(ByVal value As Object)         If m_Dictionary.ContainsKey(Key) Then             m_Dictionary(Key) = value         Else             m_Dictionary.Add(Key, value)         End If      End Set End Property 

Thanks

Answer 1

Is there anyway of using properties in C# with parameters

No. You only can provide the default property in C# with an argument, to model indexed access (as in a dictionary):

public T this[string key] {     get { return m_Dictionary[key]; }     set { m_Dictionary[key] = value; } } 

Other properties can’t have arguments. Use a function instead. By the way, it’s recommented to do the same in VB so other .NET languages (C# …) can use your code.

By the way, your code is unnecessarily complicated. Four things:

• You don’t need to escape the String identifier. Use the keyword directly.
• Why not use ''?
• Use TryGetValue, it’s faster. You query the dictionary twice.
• Your setter doesn’t have to test whether the value already exists.

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Public Shared Property DictionaryElement(ByVal Key As String) As Object     Get         Dim ret As String         If m_Dictionary.TryGetValue(Key, ret) Then Return ret         Return '' ' Same as String.Empty! '     End Get     Set(ByVal value As Object)         m_Dictionary(Key) = value     End Set End Property