Question

I’ve written some code to output any IEnumerable collection to a file, but can’t pass dictionaries to it. I’m now trying to convert the dictionary (which might be int, int or int, string or any other combination) into an array so I can do this. The code below indicates an error when I try to pass it to the method requiring the IEnumerable.

Generics are something I haven’t done much with so perhaps I’ve done something wrong with those.

public static bool DictionaryToFile<T, U>(Dictionary<T, U> TheDictionary, string FilePath)
{
    long count = 0;
    string[,] myArray = new string[2,TheDictionary.Count];
    foreach (var current in TheDictionary)
    {
        myArray[0, count] = current.Key.ToString();
        myArray[1, count] = current.Value.ToString();
    }

    // error appears here
    TypedListToFile<string[,]>(myArray, FilePath);

    return true;
}

The other one I’m calling:

public static bool TypedListToFile<T>(IEnumerable<T> TypedList, string FilePath)

Answer 1

It really depends on what you are trying to do: when you read: Why do C# Multidimensional arrays not implement IEnumerable<T>? You’ll see that a multidimensional array doesn’t implement IEnumerable, so you have to convert it first. Yet, your code doesn’t make sense. I assume you need to increment count in your loop?

Now as for solutions: you can simulate VB behaviour which automatically converts multi-dimensional arrays into enumerables by applying a linq query over it. like:

var arrayEnumerable = from entry in myArray select entry;
// and some proof that this works:
foreach (string entry in arrayEnumerable)
{
    // this will succesfully loop your array from left to right and top to bottom
}