c# - How to use Comparer for a HashSet

Question

As a result of another question I asked here I want to use a HashSet for my objects

I will create objects containing a string and a reference to its owner.

public class Synonym
{
   private string name;
   private Stock owner;
   public Stock(string NameSynonym, Stock stock)
   {
       name=NameSynonym;
       owner=stock
   }
   // [+ 'get' for 'name' and 'owner']
}

I understand I need a comparer , but never used it before. Should I create a separate class? like:

public class SynonymComparer : IComparer<Synonym>
{
   public int Compare(Synonym One, Synonym Two)
   { // Should I test if 'One == null'  or  'Two == null'  ???? 
       return String.Compare(One.Name, Two.Name, true); // Caseinsesitive
   }

}

I prefer to have a function (or nested class [maybe a singleton?] if required) being PART of class Synonym instead of another (independent) class. Is this possible?

About usage: As i never used this kind of thing before I suppose I must write a Find(string NameSynonym) function inside class Synonym, but how should I do that?

public class SynonymManager
{ 
    private HashSet<SynonymComparer<Synonym>> ListOfSynonyms;

    public SynonymManager()
    {
        ListOfSymnonyms = new HashSet<SynonymComparer<Synonym>>();
    }

    public void SomeFunction()
    { // Just a function to add 2 sysnonyms to 1 stock
        Stock stock = GetStock("General Motors");
        Synonym otherName = new Synonym("GM", stock);
        ListOfSynonyms.Add(otherName);
        Synonym otherName = new Synonym("Gen. Motors", stock);
        ListOfSynonyms.Add(otherName);
    }

    public Synonym Find(string NameSynomym)
    {
       return ListOfSynonyms.??????(NameSynonym);
    }
 }

In the code above I don't know how to implement the 'Find' method. How should i do that?

Any help will be appreciated (PS If my ideas about how it should be implemented are completely wrong let me know and tell me how to implement)

Answer 1

A HashSet doesn't need a IComparer<T> - it needs an IEqualityComparer<T>, such as

public class SynonymComparer : IEqualityComparer<Synonym>      
{
   public bool Equals(Synonym one, Synonym two)
   {
        // Adjust according to requirements.
        return StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase
                             .Equals(one.Name, two.Name);

   }

   public int GetHashCode(Synonym item)
   {
        return StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase
                             .GetHashCode(item.Name);

   }
}

However, your current code only compiles because you're creating a set of comparers rather than a set of synonyms.

Furthermore, I don't think you really want a set at all. It seems to me that you want a dictionary or a lookup so that you can find the synonyms for a given name:

public class SynonymManager
{ 
    private readonly IDictionary<string, Synonym> synonyms = new
        Dictionary<string, Synonym>();

    private void Add(Synonym synonym)
    {
        // This will overwrite any existing synonym with the same name.
        synonyms[synonym.Name] = synonym;
    }

    public void SomeFunction()
    { 
        // Just a function to add 2 synonyms to 1 stock.
        Stock stock = GetStock("General Motors");
        Synonym otherName = new Synonym("GM", stock);
        Add(otherName);
        ListOfSynonyms.Add(otherName);
        otherName = new Synonym("Gen. Motors", stock);
        Add(otherName);
    }

    public Synonym Find(string nameSynonym)
    {
       // This will throw an exception if you don't have
       // a synonym of the right name.  Do you want that?
       return synonyms[nameSynonym];
    }
}

Note that there are some questions in the code above, about how you want it to behave in various cases. You need to work out exactly what you want it to do.

EDIT: If you want to be able to store multiple stocks for a single synonym, you effectively want a Lookup<string, Stock> - but that's immutable. You're probably best storing a Dictionary<string, List<Stock>>; a list of stocks for each string.

In terms of not throwing an error from Find, you should look at Dictionary.TryGetValue which doesn't throw an exception if the key isn't found (and also returns whether or not the key was found); the mapped value is "returned" in an out parameter.