Create List with name from variable

Question

Is it possible in C# to create a list and name it from a variable or similar?

Let's say I have a list with 10 rows in it:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j

Can I make 10 lists from this list, each having a name like one of the rows?

Something like

List<string> myList = new List<string>();
foreach (var line in myList)
{
    List<string> line = new List<string>();
}

What I want is to make a few lists to store data in, but I won't know the names before the program runs so it needs to generate those dynamically.

I don't know if it is possible in C#, but it is generally bad practice. How do you intend to find the variable name later? Usually you store this in a multidimensional array or map. — Gerald Schneider
– Gerald Schneider, Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 14:57
Variable names should be defined at compile-time, they can't be generated in run-time. Probably you need another data structure, for example Dictionary<string, List<string>> where you can specify name as key to find a list — Andrey Korneyev
– Andrey Korneyev, Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 14:58
@AndyKorneyev well, in fact variables can be generated in runtime, but that's the topic of different discussion :) — bashis
– bashis, Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 15:15

Mathias R. Jessen · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-02 15:00:54Z

7

Sounds like you want a Dictionary of List<string>s:

Dictionary<string, List<string>> dict = new Dictionary<string, List<string>>();

foreach (var line in myList)
{
    dict.Add(line, new List<string>());
}

Now you can access each list based on the original string we used for the key:

List<string> aList = dict["a"];

answered Feb 2, 2016 at 15:00

Mathias R. Jessen

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Dan Forbes · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-02 15:00:26Z

3

You could try something like this:

var newList = new Dictionary<string, List<string>>();
foreach (var line in myList)
{
  newList.Add(line, new List<string>());
}

This will give you the data structures in which to store your new data and will allow you to reference them based on the names in the first list.

answered Feb 2, 2016 at 15:00

Dan Forbes

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Dmitrii Bychenko · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-02 15:07:06Z

1

It seems that you want a Dictionary<String, List<String>> like this:

  var data = myList
    .ToDictionary(line => line, line => new List<string>());

And so you can

check if "variable" exists

  if (data.ContainsKey("z")) {...}

address "variable"

  data["a"].Add("some value");

add "variable"

  data.Add("z", new List<string>());

answered Feb 2, 2016 at 15:07

Dmitrii Bychenko

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