what is the fastest way to generate a unique set in .net 2

Question

I have what is essentially a jagged array of name value pairs - i need to generate a set of unique name values from this. the jagged array is approx 86,000 x 11 values. It d

Answer 1

How about:

Dictionary hs = new Dictionary();
foreach (i in jaggedArray)
{
    foreach (j in i)
    {
        if (!hs.ContainsKey(j))
        {
            hs.Add(j, 0);
        }
    }
}
IEnumerable unique = hs.Keys;

of course, if you were using C# 3.0, .NET 3.5:

var hs = new HashSet();
hs.UnionWith(jaggedArray.SelectMany(item => item));

would do the trick.