Question

What is the ideal data structure I can use in C# to store data consisting of 1 float and 3 string fields (1000+ rows)? I want it such that the structure is easily serializable to a file and can be easily accessed for updating.

Answer 1

I’ll post an answer that assumes you already considered and dismissed using a class or a struct for some reason.

As a throwback to my graduate school database courses, I kind of like .NET 4.0’s introduction of the Tuple class. If you were so inclined, you could use

var myEntry = Tuple<float, string, string, string>(floatVal, string1Val, string2Val, string3Val);

and reference the items with

float myFloat = myEntry.Item1;
string myString = myEntry.Item2;

Tuple is also decorated with the Serializable attribute, so you can serialize them.