Dictionary methods and access patterns in C Sharp (C#) - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Dictionary methods and access patterns

📖 Scenario: You are managing a small store's inventory. You want to keep track of product names and their quantities using a dictionary.

🎯 Goal: Build a C# program that creates a dictionary of products and quantities, checks for a specific product, updates quantities, and prints the final inventory.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary called inventory with exact product names and quantities

Create a variable called productToCheck with the exact value "Bananas"

Use the ContainsKey method to check if productToCheck is in inventory

If the product exists, increase its quantity by 10 using the indexer

Print the final inventory dictionary contents in the format Product: Quantity

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Managing store inventory is a common task where dictionaries help track product quantities efficiently.

💼 Career

Understanding dictionary methods and access patterns is essential for software developers working with data collections and real-world applications.

1

Create the inventory dictionary

Create a dictionary called inventory with these exact entries: "Apples" with quantity 50, "Bananas" with quantity 30, and "Oranges" with quantity 20.

C Sharp (C#)

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use new Dictionary<string, int>() and initialize with curly braces containing key-value pairs.

2

Add a product to check

Create a string variable called productToCheck and set it to the exact value "Bananas".

C Sharp (C#)

using System.Collections.Generic;

Dictionary inventory = new Dictionary()
{
    {"Apples", 50},
    {"Bananas", 30},
    {"Oranges", 20}
};

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use string productToCheck = "Bananas"; to create the variable.

3

Check and update the product quantity

Use if (inventory.ContainsKey(productToCheck)) to check if productToCheck is in inventory. If it is, increase its quantity by 10 using inventory[productToCheck] += 10;.

C Sharp (C#)

using System.Collections.Generic;

Dictionary inventory = new Dictionary()
{
    {"Apples", 50},
    {"Bananas", 30},
    {"Oranges", 20}
};

string productToCheck = "Bananas";

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use ContainsKey to check presence, then update with the indexer.

4

Print the final inventory

Use a foreach loop with var item in inventory to print each product and its quantity in the format Product: Quantity using Console.WriteLine($"{item.Key}: {item.Value}");.

C Sharp (C#)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

Dictionary inventory = new Dictionary()
{
    {"Apples", 50},
    {"Bananas", 30},
    {"Oranges", 20}
};

string productToCheck = "Bananas";

if (inventory.ContainsKey(productToCheck))
{
    inventory[productToCheck] += 10;
}

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a foreach loop and Console.WriteLine with string interpolation.