Hi, i want to use a Hashtable that is initialized with information that's in a file
I don't want to be reading the file and then adding everything in the Hashtable, this sound like a lot of work
I Java, i have

Properties z = new Properties();
try {
   z.load(new FileInputStream("d:\\zipHash.props"));
}
catch(Exception x) {
   System.out.println("Error: " + x.getMessage());
}

And the files is organized with key= value

Is there something like this in c# ?
Thanks

Hi,

I don't know how you plan to use the "z" object in your code. Is it a one-off requirement or a regular feature. I have listed some possibilities below along with my observations.

In C# the same can be achieved via the following code:
//namespaces required

using System.Data;

//code snippet

DataSet myDS = new DataSet();
try
{
   myDS.ReadXml(@"c:\hashtest.xml");
   DataRow z = ds.Tables[0].Rows[0];
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
   Response.Write(ex.Message);
}
finally
{
   myDS = null;
}


The contents of hashtest.xml are given below,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<hashtable>
<key1>Value1</key1>
<key2>Value2</key2>
<key3>Value3</key3>
</hashtable>

While there is no ready made feature like Properties of Java. The above code could help you achieve the same.

I am not much of a Java guy, but have worked a little on Java and would suggest not to try and replicate Java style programming in C#. C# has better ways of doing the same thing that are done in a particular manner in Java.

Even looking at the sample code you have presented below,

z.load(new FileInputStream("d:\\zipHash.props"));

you would realize that load method would actually load the file and add it to the hash table, albeit internally.

I would suggest the following as a better alternative,


Hashtable z = new Hashtable();
XmlDocument myXmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
myXmlDoc.Load(@"C:\hashtest.xml");
XmlNodeList nList = myXmlDoc.GetElementsByTagName("Hashtable");
foreach(XmlNode xNode in nList)
{
    z.Add(xNode.FirstChild.FirstChild.FirstChild.Value , xNode.FirstChild.LastChild.FirstChild.Value);
}

the following is the xml structure for the above code snippet,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Hashtable>
    <object>
        <key>key1</key>
        <value>value1</value>
    </object>
    <object>
        <key>key2</key>
        <value>value2</value>
    </object>
    <object>
        <key>key3</key>
        <value>value3</value>
    </object>
</Hashtable>

Incase, you have a regular requirement you could make your own custom "Properties" class and hide the extra steps as the Java class has done.