foreach with Generic Dictionary

I decided to write this post because few people approached me with the question:  “Is there a way to use foreach iteration statement with Dictionary<TKey, TValue> object?”

The quick response is: “Yes, use KeyValuePair.”

However, it wasn’t enough and I had to show an example.

Before I will show an example here, I want to remind you that Dictionary<TKey, TValue> class implements IDictionary<TKey, TValue> interface that extends ICollection<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> which in it turn is derived from IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>.  As we know every class that implements IEnumerable interface must implement the GetEnumerator method.  And that is the reason why we can use foreach iteration statement.

Here’s the promised example.

   1: // Create a Dictionary object and load it with values.

   2: Dictionary<string, double> employeesWage = new Dictionary<string, double>();

   3: employeesWage.Add("Tom", 20000);

   4: employeesWage.Add("John", 15200);

   5: employeesWage.Add("Chris", 35000);

   6: employeesWage.Add("Brian", 38000);

   7:  

   8: // Enumerate and display

   9: foreach (KeyValuePair<string, double> pair in employeesWage)

  10:   Console.WriteLine("{0} makes {1:C}", pair.Key, pair.Value);