Multiple values for a single config key

Question

I\'m trying to use ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.GetValues() to retrieve multiple configuration values for a single key, but I\'m always receiving an array o

Answer 1

I know I'm late but i found this solution and it works perfectly so I just want to share.

It's all about defining your own ConfigurationElement

namespace Configuration.Helpers
{
    public class ValueElement : ConfigurationElement
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("name", IsKey = true, IsRequired = true)]
        public string Name
        {
            get { return (string) this["name"]; }
        }
    }

    public class ValueElementCollection : ConfigurationElementCollection
    {
        protected override ConfigurationElement CreateNewElement()
        {
            return new ValueElement();
        }


        protected override object GetElementKey(ConfigurationElement element)
        {
            return ((ValueElement)element).Name;
        }
    }

    public class MultipleValuesSection : ConfigurationSection
    {
        [ConfigurationProperty("Values")]
        public ValueElementCollection Values
        {
            get { return (ValueElementCollection)this["Values"]; }
        }
    }
}

And in the app.config just use your new section:

and when retrieving data just like this :

var section = (MultipleValuesSection) ConfigurationManager.GetSection("PreRequest");
var applications = (from object value in section.Values
                    select ((ValueElement)value).Name)
                    .ToList();

Finally thanks to the author of the original post