Case-INsensitive Dictionary with string key-type in C#

c#, collections, generic-collections

Solution

This seemed related, but I didn't understand it properly: c# Dictionary: making the Key case-insensitive through declarations

It is indeed related. The solution is to tell the dictionary instance not to use the standard string compare method (which is case sensitive) but rather to use a case insensitive one. This is done using the appropriate constructor:

var dict = new Dictionary<string, YourClass>(
        StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase);

The constructor expects an `IEqualityComparer` which tells the dictionary how to compare keys.

`StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase` gives you an `IEqualityComparer` instance which compares strings in a case-insensitive manner.

Problem

Original source

Related problems

• Case insensitive access for generic dictionary
• Difference between InvariantCulture and Ordinal string comparison
• c# Dictionary: making the Key case-insensitive through declarations