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List vs Dictionary

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In this article we are going to discuss difference between List and Dictionary in C#. There are many blogs, articles are available on the internet regarding it but in this particular article I will try to explain to you with as much as simplest and realistic examples so you can get a clear idea of the List and Dictionary in C#.

List<T> and Dictionary<TKey, TValue> are both part of the System.Collections.Generic namespace in C# and serve different purposes. Here are the key differences between the two.

Difference Between Hashtable and Dictionary in C#

S.No. List Dictionary
1 Represents a strongly-typed list of objects that can be accessed by index.
List vs Dictionary in C# 		Represents a collection of key-value pairs. It is useful for storing data that needs to be accessed by a unique key.
List vs Dictionary in C#
2 List maintains the order of elements as they are added.
List vs Dictionary in C# 		Does not guarantee the order of elements. The order of elements depends on the hash codes of the keys.
List vs Dictionary in C#
3 List allows duplicate elements.
List vs Dictionary in C# 		Does not allow duplicate keys. Each key must be unique.
List vs Dictionary in C#
4 Use when you need an ordered collection of items that can be accessed by index, and you may need to perform list-specific operations such as sorting, reversing, or finding elements by index. Use when you need to quickly look up values by a unique key and when the order of items is not important.
5 Example
List list = new List { "one", "two", "three" };
list.Add("four");
foreach (string item in list) {
    Console.WriteLine(item);
}
 Example
Dictionary dictionary = new Dictionary {
    { 1, "one" },
    { 2, "two" },
    { 3, "three" }
};
dictionary.Add(4, "four");
foreach (KeyValuePair kvp in dictionary) {
    Console.WriteLine($"Key: {kvp.Key}, Value: {kvp.Value}");
}
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