.NET Collections

Updated on September 21th 2020 with IReadOnlySet<T>

Sometimes, the proper choice of a collection can greatly impact the performance of your application. For example, there are collection types that are more appropriate for insertions, others that allow faster lookups, and so on. Plus, you must decide if you want indexed collections or not, and if you want to have generic collections, in order to have compile-time type checking. The .NET BCL comes with several general-purpose collection classes. Here is a list of all the collection classes in .NET 4.5 (plus the Immutable Collections library) and their intended use.

Namespace Purpose
System.Collections Basic types, non-generic collections and interfaces
System.Collections.Generic Generic interfaces and collections
System.Collections.ObjectModel Observable collections
System.Collections.Specialized Special collections
System.Collections.Concurrent Concurrent (thread-safe) collections
System.Collections.Immutable Immutable collections

PurposeTypesDescription
Fixed size System.ArraySystem.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableArray<T> Can have multiple dimensions
FIFOs (Queues) System.Collections.Queue, System.Collections.Generic.Queue<T>, System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentQueue<T>, System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableQueue<T> First in, first out
LIFOs (Stacks) System.Collections.Stack, System.Collections.Generic.Stack<T>, System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentStack<T>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableStack<T> Last in, first out
Linked lists System.Collections.Generic.LinkedList<T> Random inserts and deletes
Array-based System.Collections.ArrayList, System.Collections.Generic.List<T>, System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentBag<T>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableList<T>
Customizable System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection<T> Can override InsertItem, RemoveItem, SetItem and ClearItems to implement custom algorithms
Thread-safe System.Collections.Generic.SynchronizedCollection<T>, System.Collections.Generic.SynchronizedReadOnlyCollection<T> Thread-safe
Read-only System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection<T>System.Collections.Generic.SynchronizedReadOnlyCollection<T>, System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyObservableCollection<T> Wrap existing (not read-only collections)
Sorted System.Collections.SortedList, System.Collections.Generic.SortedList<K, V>, System.Collections.Generic.SortedDictionary<K, V>System.Collections.Generic.SortedSet<T>
Sorted by key
Sets System.Collections.Generic.HashSet<T>System.Collections.SortedSet<T>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableSortedSet<T>, System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableHashSet<T> No repetition of elements
Keyed System.Collections.Specialized.ListDictionary (for <=10 items), System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<K, V>, System.Collections.Hashtable (index by hash), System.Collections.Generic.KeyedByTypeCollection<T> (index by type), System.Collections.Specialized.HybridDictionary (changes depending on number of elements, ListDictionary -> Hashtable), System.Collections.Specialized.OrderedDictionary (access by key or index), System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableDictionary<K, V>System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentDictionary<K, V>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableSortedDictionary<K, V> Single value per key
Multiple values for a single key System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection
Bits System.Collections.BitArray, System.Collections.BitVector32 (up to 32 bits only) Bit operations
Strings System.Collections.Specialized.StringDictionary, System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection Strings
Observable System.Collections.ObjectModel.ObservableCollection<T>, System.Collections.ObjectModel. ReadOnlyObservableCollection<T> Identical to System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection<T>, fires events upon adding, removing, modifying or clearing.
Concurrent System.Collections.Concurrent.BlockingCollection<T>System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentBag<T>System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentDictionary<K, V>System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentQueue<T>System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentStack<T> Thread-safe, lock-free
Immutable System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableDictionary<K, V>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableHashSet<T>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableList<T>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableQueue<T>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableSortedDictionary<K, V>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableSortedSet<T>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableStack<T>System.Collections.Immutable.ImmutableArray<T> Immutable collections (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn385366.aspx)



Of course, you should not expose a collection class directly, instead you should use collection interfaces, that all these classes implement (at least, one of them). These interfaces are:

PurposeTypes
Enumerate, count System.Collections.ICollection, System.Collections.Generic.ICollection<T>
Indexed access, add/remove System.Collections.IList, System.Collections.Generic.IList<T>, System.Collections.Immutable.IImmutableList<T>System.Collections.Generic.IReadOnlyList<Y>System.Collections.Generic.IReadOnlyCollection<T>
Keyed System.Collections.IDictionary, System.Collections.Specialized.IOrderedDictionary, System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary<K, V>, System.Collections.Generic.IReadOnlyDictionary<K, V>, System.Collections.Immutable.IImmutableDictionary<K, V>
Enumerate only System.Collections.IEnumerable, System.Collections.IEnumerable<T>, System.Linq.IOrderedEnumerable<T>System.Linq.ILookup<K, E> (multiple values per key)
Queues System.Collections.Immutable.IImmutableQueue<T>
Stacks System.Collections.Immutable.IImmutableStack<T>
Sets System.Collections.Generic.ISet<T>, System.Collections.Immutable.IImmutableSet<T>System.Collections.Generic.IReadOnlySet<T>

Some recommendations for using collections:

And that's it.

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