Inherits QPtrCollection.
QMap is an STL-compatible alternative to this class.
QDict is implemented as a template class. Define a template instance QDict<X> to create a dictionary that operates on pointers to X (X *).
A dictionary is a collection of key-value pairs. The key is a QString used for insertion, removal and lookup. The value is a pointer. Dictionaries provide very fast insertion and lookup.
If you want to use non-Unicode, plain 8-bit char* keys, use the QAsciiDict template. A QDict has the same performance as a QAsciiDict. If you want to have a dictionary that maps QStrings to QStrings use QMap.
The size() of the dictionary is very important. In order to get good performance, you should use a suitably large prime number. Suitable means equal to or larger than the maximum expected number of dictionary items. Size is set in the constructor but may be changed with resize().
Items are inserted with insert(); 0 pointers cannot be inserted. Items are removed with remove(). All the items in a dictionary can be removed with clear(). The number of items in the dictionary is returned by count(). If the dictionary contains no items isEmpty() returns TRUE. You can change an item's value with replace(). Items are looked up with operator[](), or with find() which return a pointer to the value or 0 if the given key does not exist. You can take an item out of the dictionary with take().
Calling setAutoDelete(TRUE) for a dictionary tells it to delete items that are removed. The default behaviour is not to delete items when they are removed.
When an item is inserted, the key is converted (hashed) to an integer index into an internal hash array. This makes lookup very fast.
Items with equal keys are allowed. When inserting two items with the same key, only the last inserted item will be accessible (last in, first out) until it is removed.
The QDictIterator class can traverse the dictionary, but only in an arbitrary order. Multiple iterators may independently traverse the same dictionary.
When inserting an item into a dictionary, only the pointer is copied, not the item itself, i.e. a shallow copy is made. It is possible to make the dictionary copy all of the item's data (a deep copy) when an item is inserted. insert() calls the virtual function QPtrCollection::newItem() for the item to be inserted. Inherit a dictionary and reimplement newItem() if you want deep copies.
When removing a dictionary item, the virtual function QPtrCollection::deleteItem() is called. QDict's default implementation is to delete the item if auto-deletion is enabled.
Example #1:
In this example we use a dictionary to keep track of the line edits we're using. We insert each line edit into the dictionary with a unique name and then access the line edits via the dictionary.
QDict<QLineEdit> fields; // QString keys, QLineEdit* values
fields.insert( "forename", new QLineEdit( this ) );
fields.insert( "surname", new QLineEdit( this ) );
fields["forename"]->setText( "Homer" );
fields["surname"]->setText( "Simpson" );
QDictIterator<QLineEdit> it( fields ); // See QDictIterator
for( ; it.current(); ++it )
cout << it.currentKey() << ": " << it.current()->text() << endl;
cout << endl;
if ( fields["forename"] && fields["surname"] )
cout << fields["forename"]->text() << " "
<< fields["surname"]->text() << endl; // Prints "Homer Simpson"
fields.remove( "forename" ); // Does not delete the line edit
if ( ! fields["forename"] )
cout << "forename is not in the dictionary" << endl;
Example #2:
In the example we are using the dictionary to provide fast random access to the keys, and we don't care what the values are. The example is used to generate a menu of QStyles, each with a unique accelerator key (or no accelerator if there are no unused letters left).
QStringList styleList = QStyleFactory::styles();
styleList.sort();
QDict<int> letterDict( 17, FALSE );
for ( QStringList::Iterator it = styleList.begin(); it != styleList.end(); ++it ) {
QString styleName = *it;
QString styleAccel = styleName;
if ( letterDict[styleAccel.left(1)] ) {
for ( uint i = 0; i < styleAccel.length(); i++ ) {
if ( ! letterDict[styleAccel.mid( i, 1 )] ) {
styleAccel = styleAccel.insert( i, '&' );
letterDict.insert(styleAccel.mid( i, 1 ), (const int *)1);
break;
}
}
} else {
styleAccel = "&" + styleAccel;
letterDict.insert(styleAccel.left(1), (const int *)1);
}
(void) new QAction( styleName, QIconSet(), styleAccel, parent );
}
We first obtain the list of available styles, then sort them so that the menu items will be ordered alphabetically. Next we create a dictionary of int pointers. The keys in the dictionary are each one character long, representing letters that have been used for accelerators. We iterate through our list of style names. If the first letter of the style name is in the dictionary, i.e. has been used, we iterate over all the characters in the style name to see if we can find a letter that hasn't been used. If we find an unused letter we put the accelerator ampersand (&) in front of it and add that letter to the dictionary. If we can't find an unused letter the style will simply have no accelerator. If the first letter of the style name is not in the dictionary we use it for the accelerator and add it to the dictionary. Finally we create a QAction for each style.
See also QDictIterator, QAsciiDict, QIntDict, QPtrDict, Collection Classes, and Non-GUI Classes.
We recommend setting size to a suitably large prime number (e.g. a prime that's slightly larger than the expected number of entries). This makes the hash distribution better which will lead to faster lookup.
If caseSensitive is TRUE (the default), keys which differ only by case are considered different.
Each item in dict is inserted into this dictionary. Only the pointers are copied (shallow copy).
The removed items are deleted if auto-deletion is enabled.
All dictionary iterators that operate on the dictionary are reset.
See also remove(), take(), and setAutoDelete().
Reimplemented from QPtrCollection.
See also isEmpty().
Reimplemented from QPtrCollection.
If there are two or more items with equal keys, then the most recently inserted item will be found.
Equivalent to the [] operator.
Multiple items can have the same key, in which case only the last item will be accessible using operator[]().
item may not be 0.
See also replace().
This dictionary is first cleared, then each item in dict is inserted into this dictionary. Only the pointers are copied (shallow copy), unless newItem() has been reimplemented.
If there are two or more items with equal keys, then the most recently inserted item will be found.
Equivalent to the find() function.
The default implementation sets item to 0.
If there are two or more items with equal keys, then the last item that was inserted will be removed.
The removed item is deleted if auto-deletion is enabled.
All dictionary iterators that refer to the removed item will be set to point to the next item in the dictionary's traversal order.
See also take(), clear(), and setAutoDelete().
If the item does not already exist, it will be inserted.
item may not be 0.
Equivalent to:
QDict<char> dict;
...
if ( dict.find( key ) )
dict.remove( key );
dict.insert( key, item );
If there are two or more items with equal keys, then the last item that was inserted will be replaced.
If auto-deleting is turned on, all the items in a collection are deleted when the collection itself is deleted. This is convenient if the collection has the only pointer to the items.
The default setting is FALSE, for safety. If you turn it on, be careful about copying the collection - you might find yourself with two collections deleting the same items.
Note that the auto-delete setting may also affect other functions in subclasses. For example, a subclass that has a remove() function will remove the item from its data structure, and if auto-delete is enabled, will also delete the item.
See also autoDelete().
If there are two or more items with equal keys, then the last item that was inserted will be taken.
Returns a pointer to the item taken out, or 0 if the key does not exist in the dictionary.
All dictionary iterators that refer to the taken item will be set to point to the next item in the dictionary traversal order.
See also remove(), clear(), and setAutoDelete().
See also read().