LINQ query to return a Dictionary<string, string>

Question

I have a collection of MyClass that I'd like to query using LINQ to get distinct values, and get back a Dictionary<string, string> as the result, but I can't figure out how I can do it any simpler than I'm doing below. What would some cleaner code be that I can use to get the Dictionary<string, string> as my result?

var desiredResults = new Dictionary<string, string>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

var queryResults = (from MyClass mc in myClassCollection
                    orderby bp.SomePropToSortOn
                    select new KeyValuePair<string, string>(mc.KeyProp, mc.ValueProp)).Distinct();

foreach (var item in queryResults)
{
    desiredResults.Add(item.Key.ToString(), item.Value.ToString());
}

Solution 1

Use the ToDictionary method directly.

var result = 
  // as Jon Skeet pointed out, OrderBy is useless here, I just leave it 
  // show how to use OrderBy in a LINQ query
  myClassCollection.OrderBy(mc => mc.SomePropToSortOn)
                   .ToDictionary(mc => mc.KeyProp.ToString(), 
                                 mc => mc.ValueProp.ToString(), 
                                 StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

Solution 2

Look at the ToLookup and/or ToDictionary extension methods.

Comments

[Jon Skeet]

What do you want it to do with duplicate keys? Just take the first and ignore subsequent ones? Be aware that dictionaries aren't ordered, so your ordering in the query will have no effect...

[Fede]

Maybe what you're looking for is the SortedDictionary implementation of IDictionary. Otherwise the sorting over a Dictionary is pointless.