Question

This seems like it should be something very easy to do, but every time I approach this issue, I end up w/ solutions that feel “less than elegant”

Here is my basic question: If I am looping through a dictionary that I have ordered in a particular way, within any given point in the loop how can I “peek” or get reference to a dictionary item ‘x’ places ahead of the current item without changing the current enumerator? For instance:

Dim tempDictionary = New Dictionary(Of String, String)

tempDictionary.Add("TestName1", "TestValue1")
tempDictionary.Add("TestName2", "TestValue2")
tempDictionary.Add("TestName3", "TestValue3")
'... and so on ...  '

For Each Item In tempDictionary
 DoStuff(Item)

 'Here is the point in which I want to see what the value of the'
 'dictionary item that is 1, 2, 3, [x] places in front of the current'
 'item without interfering w/ the current loop.'

 'CODE'

Next

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The sounds like you want a c-style for loop. Forgive the C# here (since you asked in VB)

for (int i = 0; i < myArray.Length; i++) {
   object current = myArray[i];

   if(i + 1 < myArray.Length) { // make sure there is a next item
       object nextItem = myArray[i + 1]
   }
}

As mentioned, a Dictionary isn’t ordered, but you could put the Keys in an array to use the above.