Enumerators vs. Dictionary

I will give you my thoughts on the issue. Firstly, by Enumerator, I am guessing you mean the primitive enum type. If you actually mean Enumerators in the enumerating over a collection sense, then my answer would differ.

The big difference between dictionary and enum is that enum is a primitive type which is very simple to create, declare and work with. When talking about Dictionary, there is no actual Dictionary type. However, there are classes which implement the IDictionary interface. For example, the HashTable implements IDictionary, as it is a nongeneric collection of key/value pairs. SortedList also implements IDictionary.

So basically, if you need to create a collection which uses key/value pairs, implementing IDictionary would be the way to go. However, if you just want a quick and dirty enumerated list which provides a finite list of options to choose from, the enum is more appropriate.

2 Replies

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Bechir Bejaoui18y ago
A dictionary a pair key/Value objects container while an Enumerator is a protected field that means that it isn't directly used it is use through another objects like IEnumerator interface ti iterate objects
Dave18y ago
I will give you my thoughts on the issue. Firstly, by Enumerator, I am guessing you mean the primitive enum type. If you actually mean Enumerators in the enumerating over a collection sense, then my answer would differ.

The big difference between dictionary and enum is that enum is a primitive type which is very simple to create, declare and work with. When talking about Dictionary, there is no actual Dictionary type. However, there are classes which implement the IDictionary interface. For example, the HashTable implements IDictionary, as it is a nongeneric collection of key/value pairs. SortedList also implements IDictionary.
So basically, if you need to create a collection which uses key/value pairs, implementing IDictionary would be the way to go. However, if you just want a quick and dirty enumerated list which provides a finite list of options to choose from, the enum is more appropriate.