System.Collections.Specialized Namespace

Contains specialized and strongly-typed collections; for example, a linked list dictionary, a bit vector, and collections that contain only strings.

Classes

CollectionsUtil	Creates collections that ignore the case in strings.
HybridDictionary	Implements IDictionary by using a ListDictionary while the collection is small, and then switching to a Hashtable when the collection gets large.
ListDictionary	Implements IDictionary using a singly linked list. Recommended for collections that typically include fewer than 10 items.
NameObjectCollectionBase	Provides the abstract base class for a collection of associated String keys and Object values that can be accessed either with the key or with the index.
NameObjectCollectionBase.KeysCollection	Represents a collection of the String keys of a collection.
NameValueCollection	Represents a collection of associated String keys and String values that can be accessed either with the key or with the index.
NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs	Provides data for the CollectionChanged event.
OrderedDictionary	Represents a collection of key/value pairs that are accessible by the key or index.
StringCollection	Represents a collection of strings.
StringDictionary	Implements a hash table with the key and the value strongly typed to be strings rather than objects.
StringEnumerator	Supports a simple iteration over a StringCollection.

Structs

BitVector32	Provides a simple structure that stores Boolean values and small integers in 32 bits of memory.
BitVector32.Section	Represents a section of the vector that can contain an integer number.

Interfaces

INotifyCollectionChanged	Notifies listeners of dynamic changes, such as when an item is added and removed or the whole list is cleared.
IOrderedDictionary	Represents an indexed collection of key/value pairs.

Enums

NotifyCollectionChangedAction

Describes the action that caused a CollectionChanged event.

Delegates

NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler

Represents the method that handles the CollectionChanged event.

Remarks

Specialized collections are collections with highly specific purposes. NameValueCollection is based on NameObjectCollectionBase; however, NameValueCollection accepts multiple values per key, whereas NameObjectCollectionBase accepts only one value per key.

Some strongly typed collections in the System.Collections.Specialized namespace are StringCollection and StringDictionary, both of which contain values that are exclusively strings.

The CollectionsUtil class creates instances of case-insensitive collections.

Some collections transform. For example, the HybridDictionary class starts as a ListDictionary and becomes a Hashtable when it becomes large. The KeyedCollection<TKey,TItem> is a list but it also creates a lookup dictionary when the number of elements reaches a specified threshold.