What is the appropriate data structure for this array in CSharp?

Question

Hey guys, If I've got this data structure in PHP, what data structure is the best for it in C#?

$array = Array(
  [dummy1] => Array (
                [0] => "dffas",
                [1] => "asdas2",
                [2] => "asdasda"
              ),
  [dummy2] => Array (
                [0] => "asdasd",
                [1] => "sdfsdfs",
                [2] => "sdfsdf"
              )
)

And so on. But I need to be able to add data to the nested array on the fly, something like this:

$array["dummy1"][] = "bopnf";

I tried using a Hashtable, but when I go hashtable.add(key,value), where key is my dummy1, and value is one of the array elements, it will throw an error stating that an element already contains that key.

So I'm thinking a hashtable is not the correct way of tackling this.

Thanks, Psy

Answer 1

For example you could use a Dictionary<string, List<string>>. So you could do:

var dict=new Dictionary<string, List<string>>();
dict.add("dummy1", new List<string>() {"dffas", "asdas2", "asdasda"});
dict.add("dummy2", //etc...);

And to add data:

dict["dummy1"].Add("bopnf");

Answer 2

the reason your getting the error with the hashtable is because each key needs to be unique so this is probably not the best approach, the use of a dictionary as Konamiman explain would be best