Creating a constant Dictionary in C#

Question

What is the most efficient way to create a constant (never changes at runtime) mapping of strings to ints?

I\'ve tried us

Answer 1

This is the closest thing you can get to a "CONST Dictionary":

public static int GetValueByName(string name)
{
    switch (name)
    {
        case "bob": return 1;
        case "billy": return 2;
        default: return -1;
    }
}

The compiler will be smart enough to build the code as clean as possible.