Getting config element from ConfigurationElementCollection

Question

I have (hopefully) setup ConfigurationElementCollection of my own design with emails as keys. Now what? Hard to find actually on the web. How do I:

1. iterate through it?

2. See if a specific element exists?

3. get a specific element?

...given:

    YourConfigElement config = 
   ConfigurationManager.GetSection("YourSectionName") as YourConfigElement;

Partial answer

1.

 foreach (X x in config.XCollection) 
             <code here>

2 . replace "code here" with

 { 
    if (x.Y == needle) 
    {
       hasIndeed = true;
       break;
    }
 }

3 . replace "code here" with

 { if (x.Y == needle) 
       cameUpWith = x;
       break;
 }

Tiny odor.

Answer 1

What you want is your own generic ConfigurationElementCollection base class which implements IList<T>. You can then inherit from this for all your configuration collections and cut down on the amount of work you need to do when creating configuration collections.

public abstract class BaseConfigurationElementCollection<TConfigurationElementType> : ConfigurationElementCollection, IList<TConfigurationElementType> where TConfigurationElementType : ConfigurationElement, IConfigurationElementCollectionElement, new()
{
    protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
    {
        return new TConfigurationElementType();
    }

    protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
    {
        return ((TConfigurationElementType)element).ElementKey;
    }

    public IEnumerator<TConfigurationElement> GetEnumerator()
    {
        foreach (TConfigurationElement type in this)
        {
            yield return type;
        }
    }

    public void Add(TConfigurationElementType configurationElement)
    {
        BaseAdd(configurationElement, true);
    }

    public void Clear()
    {
        BaseClear();
    }

    public bool Contains(TConfigurationElementType configurationElement)
    {
        return !(IndexOf(configurationElement) < 0);
    }

    public void CopyTo(TConfigurationElementType[] array, int arrayIndex)
    {
        base.CopyTo(array, arrayIndex);
    }

    public bool Remove(TConfigurationElementType configurationElement)
    {
        BaseRemove(GetElementKey(configurationElement));

        return true;
    }

    bool ICollection<TConfigurationElementType>.IsReadOnly
    {
        get { return IsReadOnly(); }
    }

    public int IndexOf(TConfigurationElementType configurationElement)
    {
        return BaseIndexOf(configurationElement);
    }

    public void Insert(int index, TConfigurationElementType configurationElement)
    {
        BaseAdd(index, configurationElement);
    }

    public void RemoveAt(int index)
    {
        BaseRemoveAt(index);
    }

    public TConfigurationElementType this[int index]
    {
        get
        {
            return (TConfigurationElementType)BaseGet(index);
        }
        set
        {
            if (BaseGet(index) != null)
            {
                BaseRemoveAt(index);
            }
            BaseAdd(index, value);
        }
    }
}

With a little bit more work you can have a dictionary collection as well.