Unlock the power of .NET’s latest collection types!
Here’s a guide for when to best use the new Readonly, Immutable, and Frozen collections. You won’t believe how it can optimize your code! 👇
1️⃣ Readonly
Readonly is a readonly view of the original collection it was created from.
Useful to return to callers to indicate it is only for readonly use.
Keep in mind: It is still possible to update the underlying original collection.
2️⃣ Immutable
Immutable collection really can’t be changed after creation.
But it still has methods Add(), Remove() and Replace()? You can change the collection, but every change will return a new Immutable collection! It does internal linking to make sure it is still memory optimized.
Immutable is perfect for thread-safe modifications. Modifications are amazingly fast. No need for the slower Concurrency collections.
3️⃣ Frozen
Frozen collections are also readonly, but optimized like crazy for read access.
How? When you create a Frozen collection, it will find the best algorithm and structure to represent your data for read-heavy scenarios. Downside: it will cost more time to create the collection.
Frozen is a good fit, when you create it once (for example at the start of your app) and use it many times to lookup stuff.
Are any of these new collections useful for you?