Understanding dictionary manipulation
The Dictionary type has a key difference compared with List and Array types. While lists and arrays hold multiple data elements of the same data type, a dictionary can hold each data element along with a unique key. This combination is named key-value pairs. The user chooses the data type of the key and the value during variable creation.
The Dictionary type is mainly used for storing configuration details or other similar information. You may wonder why you should not use a List type to store and access configuration data. In real-world scenarios, each configuration data element has a descriptive name that describes what the configuration represents. For example, if the configuration file has data on Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), timeouts, and file paths, the file may look like this:
Figure 7.15 – Sample structure of a configuration file
Dictionary variables in similar scenarios make it easier for the user...