Can you store a generic dictionary in Properties.Settings in 4.0?

Question

The new Dictionary<Tkey,TValue> in .net 4.0 is serializable, so... can I now somehow use this in the Settings.Settings or Settings.Designer.cs?

Answer 1

Sort of. You can define a non-generic class that inherits from the generic class and then reference it in your settings. For example:

namespace MyNamespace
{
    public class MyClassDictionary : System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<string, MyClass>
    {}
}

Your namespace may not appear in the list of assemblies/namespaces when you select "browse" for your setting's type, but you can just enter the fully qualified name of the type (e.g., MyNamespace.MyClassDictionary) into the text box at the bottom of the dialog. You will need to compile once after defining your custom collection.