Convert String to Dictionary using LINQ

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We were working on a requirement where we had a string containing key-value pairs as shown below:

string htmlStr = "[Emp=1][Dept=2][Age=35][Sex=M]";

We had to convert this string to a Dictionary in the simplest possible way. Here’s how it can be done using Enumerable.ToDictionary()

C#

public static void Main()
{
    string htmlStr = "[Emp=1][Dept=2][Age=35][Sex=M]";
    string[] arr = htmlStr.Split(new[] { '[', ']' },
        StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
    // convert to a Dictionary
    var dict = arr
            .Select(x => x.Split('='))
            .ToDictionary(i => i[0], i => i[1]);         
}

VB.NET (Converted Code)

Public Shared Sub Main()
    Dim htmlStr As String = "[Emp=1][Dept=2][Age=35][Sex=M]"
    Dim arr() As String = htmlStr.Split( { "["c, "]"c }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
    ' convert to a Dictionary
    Dim dict = arr.Select(Function(x) x.Split("="c)).ToDictionary(Function(i) i(0), Function(i) i(1))
End Sub

As you can see, we first split the string and then use the ToDictionary method to convert the split string into a Dictionary object

OUTPUT

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About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, Developer Technologies MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) is the founder and contributor for DevCurry, DotNetCurry and SQLServerCurry. He is the Chief Editor of a Developer Magazine called DNC Magazine. He has also authored two Books - 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls. and The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Follow him on twitter @suprotimagarwal.