Reverse Sorted Dictionary in .NET

Question

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?

Answer 1

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]);
}