PurgeCacheItems method - wouldnât the following approach be more efficient?

asponmynet · April 6th, 2010, 11:41 AM

Author uses the following code to purge cached items:

Code:

     
      protected static void PurgeCacheItems(string prefix)
      {
         prefix = prefix.ToLower();
         List<string> itemsToRemove = new List<string>();
         
         IDictionaryEnumerator enumerator = BizObject.Cache.GetEnumerator();
         while (enumerator.MoveNext())
         {
            if (enumerator.Key.ToString().ToLower().StartsWith(prefix))
               itemsToRemove.Add(enumerator.Key.ToString());
         }

         foreach (string itemToRemove in itemsToRemove)
            BizObject.Cache.Remove(itemToRemove);

}

Is there a reason why we couldnât instead use the following code to purge cached items:

Code:

      
       protected static void PurgeCacheItems(string prefix)
      {
         prefix = prefix.ToLower();

          foreach(DictionaryEntry item in Cache)
          {
              if(item.Key.ToString().ToLower().StartsWith(prefix))
                  BizObject.Cache.Remove(item.Key.ToString(); 
          }
       }

If both approaches are fine, then why did the author decide to use the more complicated approach?

I would appreciate a bit of help

Lee Dumond · April 6th, 2010, 12:15 PM

Because you can't remove items from a collection while you are iterating over it.

Here the author presents is a common way to work around that. What you do is to create a temporary collection, and add to it all the items you want to remove. Then, you iterate over the temp collection while removing items from the original collection.

asponmynet · April 6th, 2010, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lee Dumond

Because you can't remove items from a collection while you are iterating over it.

* Strange. I'm able to modify items from an array while I'm iterating over this array, but if I try to remove an item from a collection, I get an exception.

* I assume the following code will do the job:

Code:

      protected static void PurgeCacheItems(string prefix)
      {
         prefix = prefix.ToLower();
         List<string> itemsToRemove = new List<string>();
         
         foreach(DictionaryEntry item in Cache)
         {
             if(item.Key.ToString().ToLower().StartsWith(prefix))
                 itemsToRemove.Add(enumerator.Key.ToString());
          }

          foreach (string itemToRemove in itemsToRemove)
              BizObject.Cache.Remove(itemToRemove);
      }

thank you sir

Lee Dumond · April 6th, 2010, 02:37 PM

Not at all strange, if you understand how enumeration works. Part of it is that the runtime has to keep track of how many items it is iterating over. It grabs that count at the beginning, which is why it is an exception to alter the number of items while enumerating.

Yeah, I think the code you have here will work. You could strip the code down even more by using the yield keyword.

asponmynet · April 8th, 2010, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lee Dumond

Not at all strange, if you understand how enumeration works. Part of it is that the runtime has to keep track of how many items it is iterating over. It grabs that count at the beginning, which is why it is an exception to alter the number of items while enumerating.

I assumed that since we can modify item in an array while iterating through it, that same would be true for collections.

your help is much appreciated

Lee Dumond · April 8th, 2010, 12:12 PM

You can modify the collection, as long as you don't change the number of items (which deleting does).

asponmynet · April 12th, 2010, 03:38 PM

much appreciated