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Use Visual C# to work with the HashTable collection

This article introduces how to use the HashTable collection in Visual C#.

Original product version:   Visual C#
Original KB number:   309357

Summary

Because hashing eliminates the need for costly searching of data to retrieve the data, you can use hashing to efficiently retrieve data. Hashing uses the value of the key itself to locate of the data.

The Base Class Libraries offer a HashTable class that is defined in the System.Collections namespace so that you are not required to code your own hash tables.

Steps to build the sample

A HashTable collection stores a (Key, Value) pair and uses the Key to hash and obtain the storage location. The Key is immutable and cannot have duplicate entries in the HashTable. This sample uses several instances of a simple Person class to store in a HashTable. The last name is used as the Key.

  1. Open Microsoft Visual Studio, and create a Windows Forms Application project in Visual C#. Form1 is added to the project by default.

  2. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project name, point to Add, and then select Class to add a class module. Class1 is added to the project by default.

  3. Replace any code in the Class1 module with the following code:

    public class Person
{
    public string Fname, Lname;d
    public Person (string FirstName, string LastName)
    {
        Fname = FirstName;
        Lname = LastName;
    }
    public override string ToString ()
    {
        return Fname + " " + Lname;
    }
}

    The Person class has one constructor that takes the FirstName and LastName parameters and assigns these parameters to the local variables. The ToString function overrides ToString from the Object class to return Fname and Lname concatenated together.

  4. Create a form-level Hashtable object, and declare three variables of type Person. Add the following code to the Form1 class:

    <?xm-deletion_mark author="v-bobbid" time="20080711T172143-0800"
data="private Hashtable MyTable = new Hashtable();

//For simplicity, create three Person objects to add to the HashTable collection.

Person Person1,Person2,Person3; "?>
<?xm-insertion_mark_start author="v-bobbid" time="20080711T172143-0800"?>
System.Collections.Hashtable MyTable = new
System.Collections.Hashtable();

//For simplicity, create three Person objects to add to the HashTable collection.
Person Person1,Person2,Person3;
<?xm-insertion_mark_end?>

  5. In the following steps, use the Add method of the Hashtable object to add three Person objects to the Hashtable in a try-catch block. The try-catch block catches the exception and displays a message if duplicate keys exist:

    1. Place a Button control on Form1, and change the Text property to Add Items.

    2. Double-click the button to open its Code window, and paste the following code in the Button1_Click event:

      Person1 = new Person("David", "Burris");
Person2 = new Person("Johnny", "Carrol");
Person3 = new Person("Ji", "Jihuang");

//The Add method takes Key as the first parameter and Value as the second parameter.

try
{
    MyTable.Add(Person1.Lname, Person1);
    MyTable.Add(Person2.Lname, Person2);
    MyTable.Add(Person3.Lname, Person3);
}
catch (ArgumentException ae)
{
    MessageBox.Show("Duplicate Key");
    MessageBox.Show(ae.Message);
}

  6. The Hashtable object provides an indexer. In the following steps, index with the Key to access the value that is stored at the hashed location:

    1. Add a Button control to Form1, and change the Name property to Get Items.

    2. Double-click the button, and paste the following code in the Button2_Click event:

      //Use the indexer of the Hashtable class to retrieve your objects. The indexer takes
//Key as a parameter and accesses it with the Hashed location.
try
{
    MessageBox.Show(MyTable[Person1.Lname].ToString());
    MessageBox.Show(MyTable[Person2.Lname].ToString());
    MessageBox.Show(MyTable[Person3.Lname].ToString());
}
catch (NullReferenceException ex)
{
    MessageBox.Show("Key not in Hashtable");
    MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
}

  7. In the following steps, use the Remove method to remove a single item from the HashTable collection:

    1. Add a Button control to Form1, and change the Text property to Remove Item.

    2. Double-click the button, and paste the following code in the Button3_Click event:

      <?xm-deletion_mark author="v-bobbid" time="20080711T173011-0800" data="if (MyTable.Count == 0)
{
    MessageBox.Show(&quot;There are no items in HashTable&quot;);
}
else
{
    MessageBox.Show(&quot;The count before removing an Item is&quot; + &quot; &quot; + MyTable.Count);
    MessageBox.Show(&quot;Removing value stored at key value (Burris)&quot;);
    Remove the object that is stored at the Key value Person1.Lname.
    MyTable.Remove(Person1.Lname);
}
"?>
<?xm-insertion_mark_start author="v-bobbid" time="20080711T173011-0800"?>if (MyTable.Count == 0)
{
    MessageBox.Show("There are no items in HashTable");
}
else
{
    MessageBox.Show("The count before removing an Item is" + " " + MyTable.Count);
    MessageBox.Show("Removing value stored at key value (Burris)");
    // Remove the object that is stored at the Key value Person1.Lname.
    MyTable.Remove(Person1.Lname);
}
<?xm-insertion_mark_end?>

  8. In the following steps, enumerate the items that are stored in the HashTable collection:

    1. Add a Button control to Form1, and change the Text property to Enumerate.

    2. Double-click the button, and paste the following code in the Button4_Click event:

      <?xm-deletion_mark author="v-bobbid" time="20080711T174252-0800"
data="IDictionaryEnumerator Enumerator;
if (MyTable.Count == 0)
MessageBox.Show(&quot;The hashtable is empty&quot;);
else
{
    MessageBox.Show(&quot;Enumerating through the Hashtable collection&quot;);
    Enumerator = MyTable.GetEnumerator();

    while (Enumerator.MoveNext())
    {
        MessageBox.Show(Enumerator.Value.ToString());
    }
}

ICollection MyKeys;

if (MyTable.Count == 0)
 MessageBox.Show(&quot;The hashtable is empty&quot;);
else
{
    MessageBox.Show(&quot;Accessing keys property to return keys collection&quot;);
    MyKeys = MyTable.Keys;

    foreach (object Key in MyKeys)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(Key.ToString());
    }
}
"?>
<?xm-insertion_mark_start author="v-bobbid" time="20080711T174252-0800"?>
System.Collections.IDictionaryEnumerator Enumerator;

if (MyTable.Count == 0)
    MessageBox.Show("The hashtable is empty");
else
{
    MessageBox.Show("Enumerating through the Hashtable collection");
    Enumerator = MyTable.GetEnumerator();

    while (Enumerator.MoveNext())
    {
        MessageBox.Show(Enumerator.Value.ToString());
    }
}

System.Collections.ICollection MyKeys;

if (MyTable.Count == 0)
    MessageBox.Show("The hashtable is empty");
else
{
    MessageBox.Show("Accessing keys property to return keys collection");
    MyKeys = MyTable.Keys;

    foreach (object Key in MyKeys)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(Key.ToString());
    }
}
<?xm-insertion_mark_end?>

      This code declares a variable of type IDictionaryEnumerator and calls the GetEnumerator method of the HashTable collection. With the Enumerator returned, the code enumerates through the items in the collection and uses the Keys method of the HashTable to enumerate through the keys.

  9. In the following steps, use the Clear method to clear the HashTable:

    1. Add a Button control to Form1, and change the Text property to Clear.

    2. Double-click the button, and paste the following code in the Button5_Click event:

      MyTable.Clear();
MessageBox.Show("HashTable is now empty");

  10. Follow these steps to build and run the application:

    1. Select Add Items. Three Person objects are added to the HashTable collection.
    2. Select Get Items. The indexer obtains the items in the HashTable collection. The three newly added items are displayed.
    3. Select Remove Item. The item at the Burris key location is deleted.
    4. Select Enumerate. IDictionaryEnumerator enumerates through the items in the HashTable collection, and the Keys property of the HashTable returns a Keys Collection.
    5. Select Clear. All the items are cleared from the HashTable collection.

Note

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended or should be inferred.

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