Complex Dictionary Print

Question

Hi Guys.

I created a complex dictionary.

mainDict<mainKey, SubDict>
subDict<subKey, sub1Dict>
sub1Dict<sub1Key, sub2Dict>
sub2Dict<sub2Key, sub2Value>
.......

How to print it out like this (vs2005 & .net 2.0 based)

mainKey/subKey/sub1Key/sub2Key, sub2Value

Do i need convert mainDict to a List and call join()?

thank you.

Answer 1

Can't see anything much better than nested loops for this - iterate over mainDict's keys, then subDict's keys inside that, and so on. You can then render the loop variables and the innermost value as a string.

Answer 2

You can use LINQ:

var qry = from pair1 in mainDict
          from pair2 in pair1.Value
          from pair3 in pair2.Value
          from pair4 in pair3.Value
          select pair1.Key + "/" + pair2.Key + "/" + pair3.Key
                   + "/" + pair4.Key + ", " + pair4.Value;

foreach(var s in qry) Console.WriteLine(s);

Answer 3

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (KeyValuePair<mainKey, SubDict> pair1 in mainDict)
foreach (KeyValuePair<subKey, sub1Dict> pair2 in pair1.Value)
foreach (KeyValuePair<sub1Key, sub2Dict> pair3 in pair2.Value)
foreach (KeyValuePair<sub2Key, sub2Value> pair4 in pair3.Value)
{
    sb.AppendFormat("{0}/{1}/{2}/{3}, {4}", 
        pair1.Key, pair2.Key, pair3.Key, pair4.Key, pair4.Value);
}

---

UPDATE:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> pair1 in mainDict)
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> pair2 in (Dictionary<string, object>)pair1.Value)
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> pair3 in (Dictionary<string, object>)pair2.Value)
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, object> pair4 in (Dictionary<string, object>)pair3.Value)
{
    sb.AppendFormat("{0}/{1}/{2}/{3}, {4}", 
        pair1.Key, pair2.Key, pair3.Key, pair4.Key, pair4.Value);
}