Difference between Dictionary and OrderedDictionary??

[nickfake]

Can anyone explain the difference between these two classes:

Dictionary: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xfhwa508.aspx
OrderedDictionary : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...ictionary.aspx

I can't seem to identify which one to use.

thanks.

[BioPhysEngr]

Dictionary is type safe using generics. OrderedDictionary accepts any object generally (stores all items at object and requires casts when accessing data). You (almost certainly) want to use Dictionary.

[Mutant_Fruit]

The biggest difference is that OrderedDictionary can be used like a regular dictionary and also as if it were a List. You can access items by index and they are stored in the order in which you added them.

If you require both semantics, then maybe making a generic version of OrderedDictionary would be good to have. Otherwise, just use a regular List<T> or a Dictionary<K, V>