Declare Nested List or List<List<>>

Question

User-574293449 posted

hi,

   I have a applciation which cotains a List<byte>. This is collection of single data. Now i need different set of these data. So i need to declare List<List<byte> .

The outer list have fixed number of lists inside. Kindly guid or give alternative if i am wrong

Answer 1

User-573138384 posted

Technically nothing wrong but why do you want to use List<List<byte>>? It will make your code complex. Can you use Dictionary and have some key to uniquely identify the inner List<byte> and work on this Dictionary?

List<byte> obj1 = new List<byte>();
List<byte> obj2 = new List<byte>();

Dictionary<string, List<byte>> abc = new Dictionary<string, List<byte>>();
abc.Add("id1", obj1);
abc.Add("id2", obj2);

Answer 2

User-574293449 posted

good method. But why you told List<List<byte>> is complex. Anyway i need check the index for a particlar set of List<byte> so even if i use dictioanry i need check the index in the key .  Am i right? or any advatage for using dictionary

 

Answer 3

User1109032460 posted

If the outer List is fixed in size, simply use an array, so

List<byte>[] lists = new List<byte>[10];

Remember that allocating the array will not allocate the individual lists within the array.

Answer 4

User-574293449 posted

yes this i want. Actually my outer List count is based on the value from config. So anyway i can create this fixed value based on the config key in the load event itself

Answer 5

User1109032460 posted

Absolutely, yes.

Just read the value from the configuration setting and replace the hardcoded value (10) that I used in my little sample.

Answer 6

User-573138384 posted

But why you told List<List<byte>> is complex. Anyway i need check the index for a particlar set of List<byte> so even if i use dictioanry i need check the index in the key .  Am i right? or any advatage for using dictionary

Readability is one observation when I do code review. In future if someone wants to maintain the code you write, they should easily understand. If you use nested level, it might be a little difficult to understand. BTW, I persoanlly used Dictionary a lot. I rememeber few advantages too.

http://www.dotnetperls.com/dictionary-time

Answer 7

User-574293449 posted

Thanks . I got it. As the outer List is fixed based on config value i used the option like DMW  told