c# - Copy key values from NameValueCollection to Generic Dictionary -

trying copy values existing namevaluecollection object dictionary. have following code below seems add not accept keys , values strings

idictionary<tkey, tvalue> dict = new dictionary<tkey, tvalue>(); public void copyfromnamevaluecollection (namevaluecollection a) {     foreach (var k in a.allkeys)     {          dict.add(k, a[k]);     }   } 

note: namevaluecollection contains string keys , values , want provide here method allow copying of generic dictionary.

it doesn't make sense use generics here since can't assign strings arbitrary generic type:

idictionary<string, string> dict = new dictionary<string, string>();  public void copyfrom(namevaluecollection a) {             foreach (var k in a.allkeys)             {                  dict.add(k, a[k]);             }   } 

although should create method create new dictionary instead:

public static idictionary<string, string> todictionary(this namevaluecollection col) {     idictionary<string, string> dict = new dictionary<string, string>();     foreach (var k in col.allkeys)     {          dict.add(k, col[k]);     }       return dict; } 

which can use like:

namevaluecollection nvc = // var dictionary = nvc.todictionary(); 

if want general way of converting strings in collection required key/value types, can use type converters:

public static dictionary<tkey, tvalue> todictionary<tkey, tvalue>(this namevaluecollection col) {     var dict = new dictionary<tkey, tvalue>();     var keyconverter = typedescriptor.getconverter(typeof(tkey));     var valueconverter = typedescriptor.getconverter(typeof(tvalue));      foreach(string name in col)     {         tkey key = (tkey)keyconverter.convertfromstring(name);         tvalue value = (tvalue)valueconverter.convertfromstring(col[name]);         dict.add(key, value);     }      return dict; }