What is C# analog of C++ std::pair?

Alexander Prokofyev picture Alexander Prokofyev · Oct 3, 2008 · Viewed 220.4k times · Source

I'm interested: What is C#'s analog of std::pair in C++? I found System.Web.UI.Pair class, but I'd prefer something template-based.

Thank you!

Answer

Jorge Ferreira picture Jorge Ferreira · Oct 3, 2008

Tuples are available since .NET4.0 and support generics:

Tuple<string, int> t = new Tuple<string, int>("Hello", 4);

In previous versions you can use System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair<K, V> or a solution like the following:

public class Pair<T, U> {
    public Pair() {
    }

    public Pair(T first, U second) {
        this.First = first;
        this.Second = second;
    }

    public T First { get; set; }
    public U Second { get; set; }
};

And use it like this:

Pair<String, int> pair = new Pair<String, int>("test", 2);
Console.WriteLine(pair.First);
Console.WriteLine(pair.Second);

This outputs:

test
2

Or even this chained pairs:

Pair<Pair<String, int>, bool> pair = new Pair<Pair<String, int>, bool>();
pair.First = new Pair<String, int>();
pair.First.First = "test";
pair.First.Second = 12;
pair.Second = true;

Console.WriteLine(pair.First.First);
Console.WriteLine(pair.First.Second);
Console.WriteLine(pair.Second);

That outputs:

test
12
true