C# Hashtable Examples
Use the Hashtable and understand its methods. Hashtable provides fast lookups of keys.Hashtable. This optimizes lookups. It computes a hash of each key you add. It then uses this hash code to look up the element very quickly.
Notes, Hashtable. This is an older .NET Framework type. It is slower than the generic Dictionary type. But if an old program uses Hashtable, it is helpful to know how to use this type.
First example. We create a Hashtable with a constructor. When it is created, the Hashtable has no values. We directly assign values with the indexer, which uses the square brackets.
First: The example adds 3 integer keys, with one string value each, to the Hashtable object.
Foreach: You can loop through the Hashtables by using the DictionaryEntry type in a foreach-loop.
ForeachDictionaryEntry: In foreach we use a DictionaryEntry. A DictionaryEntry contains 2 objects: the key and the value.
DictionaryEntryWriteLine: The WriteLine call contains a format string that displays the key-value pairs with a comma.
C# program that adds entries to Hashtable
using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
Hashtable hashtable = new Hashtable();
hashtable[1] = "One";
hashtable[2] = "Two";
hashtable[13] = "Thirteen";
foreach (DictionaryEntry entry in hashtable)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}", entry.Key, entry.Value);
}
}
}
Output
13, Thirteen
2, Two
1, One
ContainsKey. You will want to call ContainsKey on your Hashtable with the key contents. This method returns true if the key is found, regardless of the value.
Also: Contains works the same way. We see an example of using the indexer with the square brackets.
Indexer: An indexer is a property that receives an argument inside square brackets. Hashtable returns plain objects so you must cast them.
Indexer C# program that uses Contains method
using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
static Hashtable GetHashtable()
{
// Create and return new Hashtable.
Hashtable hashtable = new Hashtable();
hashtable.Add("Area", 1000);
hashtable.Add("Perimeter", 55);
hashtable.Add("Mortgage", 540);
return hashtable;
}
static void Main()
{
Hashtable hashtable = GetHashtable();
// See if the Hashtable contains this key.
Console.WriteLine(hashtable.ContainsKey("Perimeter"));
// Test the Contains method.
// ... It works the same way.
Console.WriteLine(hashtable.Contains("Area"));
// Get value of Area with indexer.
int value = (int)hashtable["Area"];
// Write the value of Area.
Console.WriteLine(value);
}
}
Output
True
True
1000
Multiple types. The example here adds string keys and int keys. Each of the key-value pairs has different types. You can put them all in the same Hashtable.
Warning: This code might throw exceptions. Casting is a delicate operation. It is hard to get right.
Info: If the cast was applied to a different type, the statement could throw an InvalidCastException. We avoid this with "is" or "as."
C# program that uses multiple types
using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
static Hashtable GetHashtable()
{
Hashtable hashtable = new Hashtable();
hashtable.Add(300, "Carrot");
hashtable.Add("Area", 1000);
return hashtable;
}
static void Main()
{
Hashtable hashtable = GetHashtable();
string value1 = (string)hashtable[300];
Console.WriteLine(value1);
int value2 = (int)hashtable["Area"];
Console.WriteLine(value2);
}
}
Output
Carrot
1000
Cast. You can use the as-operator to attempt to cast an object to a specific reference type. If the cast does not succeed, the result will be null.
NullIs: You can also use the is-operator. This operator returns true or false based on the result.
IsAs: With Hashtable, you can reduce the number of casts by using the as-operator. This is a performance warning given by FxCop.
As C# program that casts Hashtable values
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.IO;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
Hashtable hashtable = new Hashtable();
hashtable.Add(400, "Blazer");
// This cast will succeed.
string value = hashtable[400] as string;
if (value != null)
{
Console.WriteLine(value);
}
// This cast won't succeed, but won't throw.
StreamReader reader = hashtable[400] as StreamReader;
if (reader != null)
{
Console.WriteLine("Unexpected");
}
// You can get the object and test it.
object value2 = hashtable[400];
if (value2 is string)
{
Console.Write("is string: ");
Console.WriteLine(value2);
}
}
}
Output
Blazer
is string: Blazer
Keys, values. We can loop over keys and values, or store them in an ArrayList. This example shows all the keys, then all the values, and then stores the keys in an ArrayList.
Note: This Hashtable example uses the Keys property. This property returns all the keys.
Keys: The first loop in the program loops over the collection returned by the Keys instance property on the Hashtable instance.
Values: The second loop in the program shows how to enumerate only the values in the Hashtable instance.
ConsoleCopy: We create a new ArrayList with the copy constructor and pass it the Keys (or Values) property as the argument.
ArrayList C# program that loops over Keys, Values
using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
Hashtable hashtable = new Hashtable();
hashtable.Add(400, "Blaze");
hashtable.Add(500, "Fiery");
hashtable.Add(600, "Fire");
hashtable.Add(800, "Immolate");
// Display the keys.
foreach (int key in hashtable.Keys)
{
Console.WriteLine(key);
}
// Display the values.
foreach (string value in hashtable.Values)
{
Console.WriteLine(value);
}
// Put keys in an ArrayList.
ArrayList arrayList = new ArrayList(hashtable.Keys);
foreach (int key in arrayList)
{
Console.WriteLine(key);
}
}
}
Output
800 (First loop)
600
500
400
Immolate (Second loop)
Fire
Fiery
Blaze
800 (Third loop)
600
500
400
Count, Clear. You can count the elements in a Hashtable with the Count property. The example also shows using the Clear method to erase all the Hashtable contents.
Tip: An alternative to Clear() is to reassign your Hashtable reference to a new Hashtable().
Note: Microsoft states that, for Count, "retrieving the value of this property is an O(1) operation."
Time: Count is a constant-time accessor. It returns an integer and is a simple accessor with low resource demands.
C# program that uses Count
using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// Add four elements to Hashtable.
Hashtable hashtable = new Hashtable();
hashtable.Add(1, "Sandy");
hashtable.Add(2, "Bruce");
hashtable.Add(3, "Fourth");
hashtable.Add(10, "July");
// Get Count of Hashtable.
int count = hashtable.Count;
Console.WriteLine(count);
// Clear the Hashtable.
hashtable.Clear();
// Get Count of Hashtable again.
Console.WriteLine(hashtable.Count);
}
}
Output
4
0
Benchmark. We test the Hashtable collection against the Dictionary. The benchmark first populates an equivalent version of each collection.
Version 1: This version of the code uses the Hashtable from System.Collections and calls ContainsKey in a loop.
Version 2: This code uses ContainsKey from the generic Dictionary collection. It searches for the same keys.
Result: Hashtable is slower than the Dictionary code. Replacing code that uses Hashtable with Dictionary will likely make it faster.
C# program that benchmarks Hashtable, Dictionary
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
class Program
{
const int _max = 1000000;
static void Main()
{
// Set up collections.
Hashtable hashtable = new Hashtable();
for (int i = 0; i <= 30000; i++)
{
hashtable[i.ToString("00000")] = i;
}
var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, int>();
for (int i = 0; i <= 30000; i++)
{
dictionary.Add(i.ToString("00000"), i);
}
// Version 1: use Hashtable.
var s1 = Stopwatch.StartNew();
for (int i = 0; i < _max; i++)
{
if (!hashtable.ContainsKey("09999") ||
!hashtable.ContainsKey("30000"))
{
return;
}
}
s1.Stop();
// Version 2: use Dictionary.
var s2 = Stopwatch.StartNew();
for (int i = 0; i < _max; i++)
{
if (!dictionary.ContainsKey("09999") ||
!dictionary.ContainsKey("30000"))
{
return;
}
}
s2.Stop();
Console.WriteLine(((double)(s1.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds * 1000000) /
_max).ToString("0.00 ns"));
Console.WriteLine(((double)(s2.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds * 1000000) /
_max).ToString("0.00 ns"));
Console.Read();
}
}
Output
66.99 ns Hashtable
51.22 ns Dictionary
Keys and values, notes. The Keys and Values public accessors return a collection of the keys and values in the Hashtable at the time they are accessed.
However: If you need to look at all the keys and values in pairs, it is best to enumerate the Hashtable instance itself.
Constructors. The 15 overloaded constructors provide ways to specify capacities. They let you copy existing collections. You can also specify how the hash code is computed.
Constructor
A summary. Hashtable is an older collection that is obsoleted by the Dictionary collection. Knowing how to use it is critical when maintaining older programs. These programs are important.
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