Which is faster/more efficient: Dictionary or Dictionary?

Question

Are enum types faster/more efficient than string types when used as dictionary keys?

IDictionary or IDict         


        

Answer 1

I would guess that the enum version is faster. Under the hood the dictionary references everything by hashcode. My guess is that it is slower to generate the hashcode for a string. However, this is probably negligibly slower, and is most certainly faster than anything like a string compare. I agree with the other posters who said that an enum is cleaner.