Concisely creating an IDictionary<_,obj>

Question

Is there a shorter way of creating an IDictionary<_,obj>, possibly without boxing every value? This is what I have.

let values =
  [ \"a\"         


        

Answer 1

Yet another solution, simply define a bunch of overloaded extension members on Dictionary<'a,'b>:

open System.Collections.Generic
type Dictionary<'a,'b> with
    member this.Add(x1,y1,x2,y2) =
        this.Add(x1,y1)
        this.Add(x2,y2)
    member this.Add(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3) =
        this.Add(x1,y1,x2,y2)
        this.Add(x3,y3)
    member this.Add(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,x4,y4) =
        this.Add(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3)
        this.Add(x4,y4)
    member this.Add(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,x4,y4,x5,y5) =
        this.Add(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,x4,y4)
        this.Add(x5,y5)
    member this.Add(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,x4,y4,x5,y5,x6,y6) =
        this.Add(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,x4,y4,x5,y5)
        this.Add(x6,y6)
    //etc.

let values = 
    let d = Dictionary<_,obj>()
    d.Add("a", 1, 
          "b", "foo", 
          "c", true)
    d

Of course values here is not immutable like in your question, but I'm sure you could employ the same strategy in that goal.