Question

In my program I have a listbox that when the user double clicks an object it looks to a switch statement to see what event should occur. As the list begins getting larger I’m curious if there is a way to avoid having to maintain the list of objects in 2 places (once in a list to Add to the listbox, and once in the switch statement.
Is there a way to index/read/store the various Cases of my switch statement, then add them as objects to my listbox?

Example: (doesn’t work, just a theory)

Switch (n)
ForEach (Case c in Cases)
{
   arrayCases.Add(c);
}
listbox.Items.AddRange(arrayCases);

EDIT:

Going on the Dictionary recommendations I now have:

public void SetDictionary()
    {
       //add entries to the dictionary
        dict["cat"] = new Action(Cat);
        dict["dog"] = new Action(Dog);

        //add each dictionary entry to the listbox.
        foreach (string key in dict.Keys)
        {
            listboxTest.Items.Add(key);
        }                            
    }

     //when an item in the listbox is double clicked
     private void listboxTest_DoubleClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
     {
         testrun(listboxCases.SelectedItem.ToString());             
     }

     public void testrun(string n)
     {
         //this is supposed to receive the item that was double clicked in the listbox, and run it's corresponding action as defined in the dictionary.
         var action = dict[n] as Action action();
     }

I believe that my code above is mostly correct and that I’m understanding it, however the action line:
var action = dict[n] as Action action();

Shows an error stating ‘action’ is expecting a ‘;’. Is my logic here accurate? If so, why is the action call incorrect?

Answer 1

Dictionary<string, Action> is the way to avoid. Dictionary.Keys becomes ListBox.Items.

switch(n) becomes

var action = dict[n] as Action
action();