Simple Code lookup to get Description

Simple Code lookup to get Description

I have a static list of Street Type Abbreviations and their associated Street Type Descriptions: RD to Road. I have the complete list needed. There are 37 elements in the list - 37 Street Type Abbreviations with their associated Descriptions.

The lookup will only happen once. The input lookup field is in a single field: stType.

Not trying to get fancy. but what is the best approach? Dictionary, List, two dimensional array, etc. Started with Dictionary but the .Add was getting redundant. Two dimensional array let me initialize the values, but searching an old school loop.

What do you think?

You could place your information into an XML file then read the data back using LINQ into a dictionary for each list.

So the following does not have your specs but instead is a template for consideration.

Example for XML
file name Codes.xml

Code:

---

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Codes>
  <Code ID="1" Name="One" />
  <Code ID="2" Name="Two"/>
  <Code ID="3" Name="Three"/>
  <Code ID="4" Name="Four"/>
  <Code ID="5" Name="Five"/>
  <Code ID="6" Name="Six"/>
  <Code ID="7" Name="Seven"/>
</Codes>

---

Then using the following code read the data into a Dictionary

Code:

---

  Public Sub DemoCodeInDict()
      Dim Doc As New XDocument
      Doc = XDocument.Load("Codes.xml")

      Dim Dict = ( _
          From Item In Doc...<Code> _
          Let name = Item.@Name _
          Order By name _
          Select New With _
            { _
              Key .ID = Item.@ID, _
              Key .Name = name}).ToDictionary( _
                  Function(a) a.ID, Function(a) a.Name)

      For Each C In Dict
        Console.WriteLine("{0}={1}", C.Key, C.Value)
      Next

      Console.WriteLine()
      If Dict.ContainsKey("7") Then
        Console.WriteLine("Value for 7 is [{0}]", Dict.Item("7"))
      End If
      If Dict.ContainsKey("22") Then
        Console.WriteLine("Value for 7 is [{0}]", Dict.Item("22"))
      Else
        Console.WriteLine("Key 22 does not exists")
      End If
  End Sub

---

I would say that the dictionary is the most "proper" way, and I like the route KI took, but it really comes down to personal preference. The use of a 2D array would be constraining, but if the list never changes in size, then the constraint wouldn't matter all that much. Accessing the items in an array would require a loop, so the dictionary would be more consise, but the speed would probably be about the same.