Why use tuples instead of objects?

Question

The codebase where I work has an object called Pair where A and B are the types of the first and second values in the Pair. I find this object to be offensive, because it g

Answer 1

The code example has a few different smells:

• Reinventing the wheel

There is already a tuple available in the framework; the KeyValuePair structure. This is used by the Dictionary class to store pairs, but you can use it anywhere it fits. (Not saying that it fits in this case...)

• Making a square wheel

If you have a list of pairs it's better to use the KeyValuePair structure than a class with the same purpose, as it results in less memory allocations.

• Hiding the intention

A class with properties clearly shows what the values mean, while a Pair class doesn't tell you anything about what the values represent (only that they are probably related somehow). To make the code reasonably self explanatory with a list like that you would have to give the list a very desciptive name, like productIdAndQuantityPairs...