C# – Reverse Sorted Dictionary in .NET

.netc++dictionaryiterationreverse

Is there any way I can iterate backwards (in reverse) through a SortedDictionary in c#?

Or is there a way to define the SortedDictionary in descending order to begin with?

Best Solution

The SortedDictionary itself doesn't support backward iteration, but you have several possibilities to achieve the same effect.

  1. Use .Reverse-Method (Linq). (This will have to pre-compute the whole dictionary output but is the simplest solution)

    var Rand = new Random();

var Dict = new SortedDictionary<int, string>();

for (int i = 1; i <= 10; ++i) {
    var newItem = Rand.Next(1, 100);
    Dict.Add(newItem, (newItem * newItem).ToString());
}

foreach (var x in Dict.Reverse()) {
    Console.WriteLine("{0} -> {1}", x.Key, x.Value);
}

  2. Make the dictionary sort in descending order.

    class DescendingComparer<T> : IComparer<T> where T : IComparable<T> {
    public int Compare(T x, T y) {
        return y.CompareTo(x);
    }
}

// ...

var Dict = new SortedDictionary<int, string>(new DescendingComparer<int>());

  3. Use SortedList<TKey, TValue> instead. The performance is not as good as the dictionary's (O(n) instead of O(logn)), but you have random-access at the elements like in arrays. When you use the generic IDictionary-Interface, you won't have to change the rest of your code.

Edit :: Iterating on SortedLists

You just access the elements by index!

var Rand = new Random();


var Dict = new SortedList<int, string>();

for (int i = 1; i <= 10; ++i) {
    var newItem = Rand.Next(1, 100);
    Dict.Add(newItem, (newItem * newItem).ToString());
}

// Reverse for loop (forr + tab)
for (int i = Dict.Count - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
    Console.WriteLine("{0} -> {1}", Dict.Keys[i], Dict.Values[i]);
}
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