I have a dictionary of type
Dictionary<int, (float, float)>
when trying to read the value from it I can't use this way
if (myDict.TryGetValue(1, out (float tupleItem1, float tupleItem2))) { /* ... */ }
because then I get compile errors
The way it works is
if (myDict.TryGetValue(1, out (float, float) theTuple)) { /* ... */ }
Is there a way I can directly initialize the variables like so?
if (!myDict.TryGetValue(1, out (float tupleItem1, float tupleItem2)))
{
/* handle if not found */
tupleItem1 = 111;
tupleItem2 = -12345;
}
You can't deconstruct directly in an out parameter yet unfortunately, see this proposal.
You'll have to deconstruct it yourself:
if (!myDict.TryGetValue(1, out var result))
{
result = (111, -12345);
}
You can improve this situation slightly with an extension method:
public static class DictionaryExtensions
{
public static TValue? TryGetValue<TKey, TValue>(this Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dict, TKey key) where TValue : struct
{
return dict.TryGetValue(key, out var result) ? result : null;
}
}
This lets you write:
if (myDict.TryGetValue(1) is not (float tupleItem1, float tupleItem2))
{
tupleItem1 = 111;
tupleItem2 = -12345;
}
If you find yourself doing this a lot, you could write a simple little extension method to make it more readable:
public static class DictionaryExt
{
public static TValue TryGetValueOrDefault<TKey, TValue>(this Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dict, TKey key, Func<TValue> getDefault)
{
return dict.TryGetValue(key, out var value)
? value
: getDefault();
}
}
Then your sample code could looks something like this:
var dict = new Dictionary<int, (float, float)>();
var result = dict.TryGetValueOrDefault(1, () => (111, -12345));
Console.WriteLine(result);
I chose to use Func<TValue> rather than TValue for the default so that you don't have to create a default value that isn't going to be used in the case that the dictionary already contains the key.
If you want a slightly simpler syntax and you don't care that the default is created for every call regardless of whether it's actually needed you could write it like this instead:
public static class DictionaryExt
{
public static TValue TryGetValueOrDefault<TKey, TValue>(this Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dict, TKey key, TValue defaultValue)
{
return dict.TryGetValue(key, out var value)
? value
: defaultValue;
}
}
Which would be called like this:
var dict = new Dictionary<int, (float, float)>();
var result = dict.TryGetValueOrDefault(1, (111, -12345));
Console.WriteLine(result);
You could of course include both methods in DictionaryExt for more flexibility.
(It's also entirely possible that the overhead of creating a Func<TValue> for every call is greater than creating a tuple for each call, so if you're worried about performance you should test it. In either case, you could pass in a precreated Func or Tuple to avoid the creation overhead.)