Handling a multi-dimensional data structure in .Net 3.5 and above

Question

I want to build a 2 dimensional (non ragged at this point) object array.

I can easily build a 2 dimensional Array[,], and will do so if it is the best option available, but have tended to avoid arrays in favour of the advanced functionality of .NET's List and Dictionary structures.

I could also use a List<List<T>> to store a 2 dimensional array, but was wondering if there was any best-practice or implemented data structures in .NET 3.5 or above to handle Typed 2 - n dimensional structures with more flexible / comprehensive functionality than an array?

I am not interested in SSAS/OLAP style answers.

Answer 1

• A two dimensional array would work really well, it would consume the least amount of ram, and have the fastest lookup times. It would generally work well with read-only data
• A list of lists, or dictionary of lists, or dictionary of arrays, or dictionary of dictionaries would work well too depending on how you need to access the data etc

Answer 2

I'd look at Tuple implementations for .NET 3.5. Tuples will be native in .NET 4.0, so this will be forward compatible:

• Will a future version of .NET support tuples in C#?
• Using anonymous types to simulate a tuple (used quite a bit by the MVC devs)