Get value from a dictionary contained in a dictionary

Question

I have an API that returns a dictionary of dictionaries.

I currently have this code to access the value of the dictionary, but it looks like a code smell. Is there a better way to structure this?

// Dictionary<string, Dictionary<DateTime, string>> CountryCode();

var response = api.CountryCode();

string GB2001;
if (response.ContainsKey("GB") && response["GB"].ContainsKey(new DateTime(2001, 04, 01)))
{
    GB2001 = response["GB"][new DateTime(2001, 04, 01)];

    // Use the result of GB2001 here
}

Answer 1

@dfhwze's answer is great (upvoted it),

there are also other options, which refactors a bit more. These could be a option if you need the more than once.

Inheritance

Create a separate class and add the method there.

This is a bit more "information hiding" (OO concept)

e.g.

public class CountryCodes : Dictionary<string, Dictionary<DateTime, string>>
{
    public string FindGB2001(string countryCode, DateTime date)
    {
        if (TryGetValue(countryCode, out var country)
            && country != null &&
            country.TryGetValue(date, out var GB2001))
        {
            return GB2001;
        }

        return null;
    }
}

usage:

CountryCodes countryCodes = ...;
countryCodes.FindGB2001("GB", new DateTime(2001, 04, 01));

Generic extension

Another option is to create a helper extension for nested dictionaries. This is nice if you need it for more situations. You could also call if just TryFind.

public static class DictionaryExtensions
{
    public static bool TryFindInNested<TKey, TKey2, TItem>(this Dictionary<TKey, IDictionary<TKey2, TItem>> dict, TKey key1, TKey2 key2, out TItem item)
    {
        if (dict.TryGetValue(key1, out var item1) && item1 != null && item1.TryGetValue(key2, out item))
        {
            return true;
        }

        item = default(TItem); //or just "default" for C# 7.1
        return false;
    }
}

Usage:

var countyCodes2 = new Dictionary<string, IDictionary<DateTime, string>>(); // note used IDictionary for nested.
countyCodes2.TryFindInNested("GB", new DateTime(2001, 04, 01), out string item);

Answer 2

The 'problem' with this approach is that you perform a lookup twice for each key.

1. ContainsKey
2. indexer lookup [..]

code

if (response.ContainsKey("GB") && response["GB"].ContainsKey(new DateTime(2001, 04, 01)))
{
    GB2001 = response["GB"][new DateTime(2001, 04, 01)];
}

Use TryGetValue to combine lookup and indexer.

string GB2001;
if (response.TryGetValue("GB", out var country))
{
    country?.TryGetValue(new DateTime(2001, 04, 01), out GB2001);
}