Using a Collection Initializer with a Dictionary

Collection initializers (introduced in C# 3.0) provide an easy way to initialize a collection of items.  For example, instead of doing this…

List<Color> colors = new List<Color>();
colors.Add(new Color { Value = 0xFFF0F8FF, Name = "Alice Blue" });
colors.Add(new Color { Value = 0xFF9400D3, Name = "Dark Violet" });
colors.Add(new Color { Value = 0xFF708090, Name = "Slate Gray" });

…we can do this:

List<Color> colors = new List<Color>
{
    new Color { Value = 0xFFF0F8FF, Name = "Alice Blue" },
    new Color { Value = 0xFF9400D3, Name = "Dark Violet" },
    new Color { Value = 0xFF708090, Name = "Slate Gray" }
};

But what if we want to initialize a dictionary?  The traditional way would be like this:

Dictionary<UInt32, String> colors = new Dictionary<UInt32, String>();
colors.Add(0xFFF0F8FF, "Alice Blue");
colors.Add(0xFF9400D3, "Dark Violet");
colors.Add(0xFF708090, "Slate Gray");

But how would we use a collection initializer?  When you iterate through a dictionary, each item is a KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>.  But we can’t do this:

Dictionary<UInt32, String> colors = new Dictionary<UInt32, String>
{
    new KeyValuePair<UInt32, String>(0xFFF0F8FF, "Alice Blue"),
    new KeyValuePair<UInt32, String>(0xFF9400D3, "Dark Violet"),
    new KeyValuePair<UInt32, String>(0xFF708090, "Slate Gray")
};

The solution is not entirely obvious, but it is succinct:

Dictionary<UInt32, String> colors = new Dictionary<UInt32, String>
{
    { 0xFFF0F8FF, "Alice Blue" },
    { 0xFF9400D3, "Dark Violet" },
    { 0xFF708090, "Slate Gray" }
};

This is not mentioned in the MSDN link shown above, but MSDN does discuss it here.

Hope this helps!

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