Elegant way to create a nested Dictionary in C#

Question

I realized that I didn\'t give enough information for most people to read my mind and understand all my needs, so I changed this somewhat from the original.

Answer 1

I think the simplest approach would be to use the LINQ extension methods. Obviously I haven't tested this code for performace.

var items = new[] {
  new Thing { Foo = 1, Bar = 3, Baz = "a" },
  new Thing { Foo = 1, Bar = 3, Baz = "b" },
  new Thing { Foo = 1, Bar = 4, Baz = "c" },
  new Thing { Foo = 2, Bar = 4, Baz = "d" },
  new Thing { Foo = 2, Bar = 5, Baz = "e" },
  new Thing { Foo = 2, Bar = 5, Baz = "f" }
};

var q = items
  .ToLookup(i => i.Foo) // first key
  .ToDictionary(
    i => i.Key, 
    i => i.ToLookup(
      j => j.Bar,       // second key
      j => j.Baz));     // value

foreach (var foo in q) {
  Console.WriteLine("{0}: ", foo.Key);
  foreach (var bar in foo.Value) {
    Console.WriteLine("  {0}: ", bar.Key);
    foreach (var baz in bar) {
      Console.WriteLine("    {0}", baz.ToUpper());
    }
  }
}

Console.ReadLine();

Output:

1:
  3:
    A
    B
  4:
    C
2:
  4:
    D
  5:
    E
    F