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var array = new JsonArray
{
["a"] = 1,
["b"] = 2,
["c"] = 3,
};
This compiles. Why does this compile?!
Today we’re going to explore that.
What’s wrong?
In case you didn’t see it, we’re creating a JsonArray instance and initializing using key/value pairs. But arrays don’t contain key/value pairs; they contain values. Objects contain key/value pairs.
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var list = new List<int>
{
["a"] = 1,
["b"] = 2,
["c"] = 3,
};
This doesn’t compile, as one would expect. So why does JsonArray allow this? Is the collection initializer broken?
Collection initializers
Microsoft actually has some really good documentation on collection initializers so I’m not going to dive into it here. Have a read through that if you like.
The crux of it comes down to when collection initializers are allowed. First, you need to implement IEnumerable<T> and an .Add(T) method (apparently it also works as an extension method). This will enable the basic collection initializer syntax, like
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var list = new List<int> { 1, 2, 3 };
But you can also enable direct-indexing initialization by adding an indexer. This lets us do thing like
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var list = new List<int>(10)
{
[2] = 1,
[5] = 2,
[6] = 3
};
More commonly, you may see this used for Dictionary<TKey, TValue> initialization:
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var dict = new Dictionary<string, int>
{
["a"] = 1,
["b"] = 2,
["c"] = 3,
}
But, wait… does that mean that JsonArray has a string indexer?
JsonArray has a string indexer!
It sure does! You can see it in the documentation, right there under Properties.
Why?! Why would you define a string indexer on an array type?
Well, they didn’t. They defined it and the integer indexer on the base type, JsonNode, as a convenience for people working directly with the base type without having to cast it to a JsonArray or JsonObject first.
But now, all of the JsonNode-derived types have both an integer indexer and a string indexer, and it’s really weird. It makes all of this code completely valid:
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JsonValue number = ((JsonNode)5).AsValue(); // can't cast directly to JsonValue
_ = number[5]; // compiles but will explode
_ = number["five"]; // compiles but will explode
JsonArray array = new() { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 };
_ = array[5]; // fine
_ = array["five"]; // compiles but will explode
JsonObject obj = new() { ["five"] = 1 };
_ = obj[5]; // compiles but will explode
_ = obj["five"]; // fine
Is this useful?
This seems like a very strange API design decision to me. I don’t think I’d ever trust a JsonNode enough to confidently attempt to index it before checking to see if it can be indexed. Furthermore, the process of checking whether it can be indexed can easily result in a correctly-typed variable.
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if (node is JsonArray array)
Console.WriteLine(array[5]);
This will probably explode because I didn’t check bounds, but from a type safety point of view, this is SO much better.
I have no need to access indexed values directly from a JsonNode. I think this API enables programming techniques that are dangerously close to using the dynamic keyword, which should be avoided at all costs.
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