Most concise way to initialize a C# hashtable [duplicate]

Solution 1:

C# 3 has a language extension called collection initializers which allow you to initialize the values of a collection in one statement.

Here is an example using a Dictionary<,>:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var dict = new Dictionary<string, int>
        {
            {"a", 23}, {"b", 45}, {"c", 67}, {"d", 89}
        };
    }
}

This language extension is supported by the C# 3 compiler and any type that implements IEnumerable and has a public Add method.

If you are interested I would suggest you read this question I asked here on StackOverflow as to why the C# team implemented this language extension in such a curious manner (once you read the excellent answers to the question you will see that it makes a lot of sense).