How to Clone a Dictionary in C#

How to Clone a Dictionary in C# ?

Answer

To clone a dictionary in C#, you can create a new dictionary and copy the elements from the original dictionary. You can use the `Dictionary(IDictionary)` constructor to create a shallow copy or use the `ToDictionary` method from the `System.Linq` namespace.

✐ Examples

1 Cloning a Dictionary Using the Constructor

We can clone a dictionary in C# using the `Dictionary(IDictionary)` constructor. This example demonstrates how to declare and initialize a dictionary, use the constructor to clone it, and print the cloned dictionary.

For example,

We start by including the necessary namespace: using System.Collections.Generic;.
We declare and initialize a dictionary named originalDict with integer keys and string values.
We use the `Dictionary(IDictionary)` constructor to create a shallow copy of the original dictionary.
We print the cloned dictionary.

C# Program

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Declare and initialize a dictionary
        Dictionary<int, string> originalDict = new Dictionary<int, string>
        {
            {1, "One"},
            {2, "Two"},
            {3, "Three"}
        };

        // Clone the dictionary using the constructor
        Dictionary<int, string> clonedDict = new Dictionary<int, string>(originalDict);

        // Print the cloned dictionary
        Console.WriteLine("Cloned dictionary:");
        foreach (var kvp in clonedDict)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Key: {0}, Value: {1}", kvp.Key, kvp.Value);
        }
    }
}

Output

Cloned dictionary:
Key: 1, Value: One
Key: 2, Value: Two
Key: 3, Value: Three

2 Cloning a Dictionary Using the `ToDictionary` Method

We can clone a dictionary in C# using the `ToDictionary` method from the `System.Linq` namespace. This example demonstrates how to declare and initialize a dictionary, use the `ToDictionary` method to clone it, and print the cloned dictionary.

For example,

We start by including the necessary namespaces: using System.Collections.Generic; and using System.Linq;.
We declare and initialize a dictionary named originalDict with integer keys and string values.
We use the `ToDictionary` method to create a shallow copy of the original dictionary.
We print the cloned dictionary.

C# Program

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Declare and initialize a dictionary
        Dictionary<int, string> originalDict = new Dictionary<int, string>
        {
            {1, "One"},
            {2, "Two"},
            {3, "Three"}
        };

        // Clone the dictionary using the ToDictionary method
        Dictionary<int, string> clonedDict = originalDict.ToDictionary(kvp => kvp.Key, kvp => kvp.Value);

        // Print the cloned dictionary
        Console.WriteLine("Cloned dictionary:");
        foreach (var kvp in clonedDict)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Key: {0}, Value: {1}", kvp.Key, kvp.Value);
        }
    }
}

Output

Cloned dictionary:
Key: 1, Value: One
Key: 2, Value: Two
Key: 3, Value: Three

Summary

In this tutorial, we learned How to Clone a Dictionary in C# language with well detailed examples.

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