how to do a dictionary reverse lookup

Question

I have a dictionary of type and for a particular case, I need to do a reverse lookup. So for instance suppose I have this entry <\"S

Answer 1

Basically, You can use LINQ and get the Key like this, without reversing anything:

var key = dictionary.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Value == "ab").Key;

If you really want to reverse your Dictionary, you can use an extension method like this:

public static Dictionary Reverse(this IDictionary source)
{
     var dictionary = new Dictionary();
     foreach (var entry in source)
     {
         if(!dictionary.ContainsKey(entry.Value))
             dictionary.Add(entry.Value, entry.Key);
     }
     return dictionary;
} 

Then you can use it like this:

var reversedDictionary = dictionary.Reverse();
var key = reversedDictionary["ab"];

Note: if you have duplicate values then this method will add the first Value and ignore the others.