C# Hashtable

A Hashtable is a non-generic collection that stores key/value pairs that are arranged based on the hashcode of each key.

The Hashtable Class implements ICollection.

C# Hashtable implements ICollection
C# Hashtable implements ICollection

Create a Hashtable

To create Hashtable in C#, we need to use the System.Collections namespace. Here is how we can create a Hashtable in C#.

// create a hashtable
Hashtable myTable = new Hashtable();

Example: Create a Hashtable

using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
// create a hashtable Hashtable myTable = new Hashtable();
// add items to hashtable myTable.Add("Name", "Ginny"); myTable.Add("RollNumber", 12); myTable.Add("Address", "Miami"); // print value of the element whose key is "RollNumber" Console.WriteLine(myTable["RollNumber"]); } }

Output

12

Basic Operations on Hashtable

In C#, we can perform different operations on a hashtable. We will look at some commonly used Hashtable operations in this tutorial:

  • Add Elements
  • Access Elements
  • Change Elements
  • Remove Elements

Let's see how we can perform these operations in detail!


Add Elements in Hashtable

C# provides the Add() method using which we can add elements in Hashtable. For example,

using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // create a hashtable
        Hashtable myTable = new Hashtable();

// add items to hashtable myTable.Add("Subject", "Math"); myTable.Add("Code", 139);
} }

In the above example, we have created a Hashtable named myTable.

Here we have added key/value pairs using the Add() method:

  • keys - "Subject" and "Code"
  • values - "Math" and 139

Note: In Hashtable, keys must be unique and cannot be null. However, values can be null or duplicate.


Another way to add Elements to Hashtable

Add Elements in a Hashtable without using Add() method

We can add Hashtable elements without using the Add() method. For example,

using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
// create a hashtable and add elements Hashtable myTable = new Hashtable() { { 1, "Programiz" }, { "Greet", "Hello" } };
} }

This is also called collection-initializer.


Access Hashtable Elements

We can access the elements inside the Hashtable using it's keys. For example,

using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // create a hashtable and add elements 
        Hashtable myTable = new Hashtable();

        // add items to hashtable
        myTable.Add("Employee", "James");
        myTable.Add("Id", 13);

// access the value whose key is "Employee" Console.WriteLine(myTable["Employee"]);
// access the value whose key is "Id" Console.WriteLine(myTable["Id"]);
} }

Output

James
13

In the above example, we have accessed the values of Hashtable using their keys:

  • myTable["Employee"] - accesses the value whose key is "Employee"
  • myTable["Id"] - accesses the value whose key is "Id"

Iterate Hashtable

In C#, we can also loop through each element of Hashtable using a foreach loop. For example,

using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // create a hashtable and add elements 
        Hashtable myTable = new Hashtable();

        // add items to hashtable
        myTable.Add("Employee", "Jake");
        myTable.Add("Id", 23);
        myTable.Add("Address", "Cornelia Street");

// print keys of hashtable foreach (var item in myTable.Keys) { Console.WriteLine("Key = {0}", item); }
// print values of hashtable foreach (var item in myTable.Values) { Console.WriteLine("Value = {0}", item); }
} }

Output

Key = Address
Key = Employee
Key = Id
Value = Cornelia Street
Value = Jake
Value = 23

In the above example, we have looped through myTable using a foreach loop.


Another way to iterate through Hashtable

Iterate using DictionaryEntry

The elements of Hashtable are stored in DictionaryEntry so we can use DictionaryEntry to iterate through Hashtable. For example,

using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // create a hashtable and add elements 
        Hashtable myTable = new Hashtable();

        // add items to hashtable
        myTable.Add("Employee", "Jake");
        myTable.Add("Id", 23);
        myTable.Add("Address", "Cornelia Street");

// iterate using DictionaryEntry foreach (DictionaryEntry item in myTable) { Console.WriteLine("{0} : {1} ", item.Key, item.Value); }
} }

Output

Employee : Jake 
Address : Cornelia Street 
Id : 23 

Change Hashtable Elements

We can change the value of elements in Hashtable as:

using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // create a hashtable and add elements 
        Hashtable myTable = new Hashtable();

        // add items to hashtable
        myTable.Add("Employee", "Jake");
        myTable.Add("Id", 23);
        myTable.Add("Address", "Cornelia Street");

        // print original value 
        Console.WriteLine("Value of Address before changing: " + myTable["Address"]);

// change the value of "Address" key to "Ontario" myTable["Address"] = "Ontario";
// print new updated value of "Address" Console.WriteLine("Value of Address after changing: " + myTable["Address"]); } }

Output

Value of Address before changing: Cornelia Street
Value of Address after changing: Ontario

Here, we have changed the value of the "Address" key in myTable.


Remove Hashtable Elements

To remove the elements of Hashtable we use:

  • Remove(key) - removes the element according to the specified key

For example,

using System;
using System.Collections;
class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // create a hashtable and add elements 
        Hashtable myTable = new Hashtable();

        // add items to hashtable
        myTable.Add("Employee", "Tom");
        myTable.Add("Id", 5);
        myTable.Add("Address", "London");

        Console.WriteLine("Original Hashtable :");

        foreach (DictionaryEntry item in myTable)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("{0} : {1} ", item.Key, item.Value);
        }

// remove value with key "Id" myTable.Remove("Id");
Console.WriteLine("\nModified Hashtable :"); // iterate through the modified hashtable foreach (DictionaryEntry item in myTable) { Console.WriteLine("{0} : {1} ", item.Key, item.Value); } } }

Output

Original Hashtable :
Employee : Tom 
Address : London
Id : 5

Modified Hashtable :
Employee : Tom
Address : London

In the above example, we have removed the element whose key is "Id".

Here, myTable.Remove("Id") removes 5 from myTable. So when we iterate through myTable we get a modified Hashtable that does not contain "Id".

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