Next key in C# Dictionary

Question

How to get an Enumerator to an item in a -Sorted- dictionary using key?

Note:GetEnumerator() gets an Enumerator to first element..

But I need to get an Enumerator to the element with a given key in order to gain access to next elements using MoveNext() for example...

Edit: Or a way to access next elements...

Edit: I prefer a const time method...

Thanks

Solution 1

var enumerator = dictionary.Keys.SkipWhile(k => k != myKey)

Where myKey is the key you're looking for. And you can use the OrderBy extension method if you want to have the keys sorted.

Edit: You can't do it in constant with Dictionary/SortedDictionary. Why not implement your own binary search tree (like SortedDictionary is) and you will have O(log n) time lookup and O(1) time .next()?

Solution 2

Maybe this is useful to somebody:

public Dictionary<string, int> myDictionary = new Dictionary<string, int>();
public string myCurrentKey = "some key 5";
for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
    myDictionary.Add(string.Format("some key {0}", i), i);
}

private void MoveIndex(int dir) { // param "dir" can be 1 or -1 to move index forward or backward
    List<string> keys = new List<string>(myDictionary.Keys);
    int newIndex = keys.IndexOf(myCurrentKey) - dir;
    if (newIndex < 0) {
        newIndex = myDictionary.Count - 1;
    } else if (newIndex > myDictionary.Count - 1) {
        newIndex = 0;
    }

    myCurrentKey = keys[newIndex];
}

Debug.Log(string.Format("Current value: {0}", myDictionary[myCurrentKey])); // prints 5
MoveIndex(1);
Debug.Log(string.Format("Current value: {0}", myDictionary[myCurrentKey])); // prints 6
MoveIndex(-1);
MoveIndex(-1);
Debug.Log(string.Format("Current value: {0}", myDictionary[myCurrentKey])); // prints 4

Solution 3

If you have Framework >=3.5 installed use SkipWhile Janus Tondering and LukeH suggested. For lower framework versions you have to do it for yourself(f.e. fill a second dictionary with the keyvaluepairs from your key to the end).

Solution 4

You can't do that with Dictionary. You can accomplish that having possibility of accessing by index, so you can use SortedList instead of Dictionary. Also you can have a look at SkipWhile.

Although you can have some workaround like this :

Dictionary<int, int> dictionary = new Dictionary<int, int>();
foreach (KeyValuePair<int, int> pair in dictionary)
{ 
   // you can check the key you need and assume that the next one will be what you need.
}

But of course this is not the best idea.

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Comments

[vapcguy]

How would this method be used/called?