Difference between Dictionary and Hashtable

Dictionary provides generic types  , which allows to create dictionary of any type. Where as HashTable will store values in the form of object. So, while using a collection of primitive types such as integer, hashtable will have additional cost of boxing and unboxing, where as dictionary is generic, it will not have additional cost of boxing and unboxing.

If the collection if of type int,datetime,float etc, Dictionary provides better performance than hashtable.

If the collection is of type custom object, Both will provide same performance.

Dictionary is typed (so valuetypes don't need boxing), a Hashtable isn't (so valuetypes need boxing). Hashtable has a nicer way of obtaining a value than dictionary IMHO, because it always knows the value is an object. Though if you're using .NET 3.5, it's easy to write an extension method for dictionary to get similar behavior.


There is one more important difference between a HashTable and Dictionary. If you use indexers to get a value out of a HashTable, the HashTable will successfully return null for a non-existent item, whereas the Dictionary will throw an error if you try accessing a item using a indexer which does not exist in the Dictionary

    //No strict type declaration
        Hashtable hash = new Hashtable();
        hash.Add(1, "One");
        hash.Add(2, "Two");
        hash.Add(3, "Three");
        hash.Add(4, "Four");
        hash.Add(5, "Five"); 
        hash.Add(6, "Six");
        hash.Add(7, "Seven");
        hash.Add(8, "Eight");
        hash.Add(9, "Nine");
        hash.Add("Ten", 10);// No error as no strict type

        for(int i=0;i<=hash.Count;i++)//=>No error for index 0
        {
            //Can be accessed through indexers
            Console.WriteLine(hash[i]);
        }
       Console.WriteLine(hash["Ten"]);//=> No error in Has Table

//Strict type declaration
        Dictionary<int,string> dictionary= new Dictionary<int, string>();
        dictionary.Add(1, "One");
        dictionary.Add(2, "Two");
        dictionary.Add(3, "Three");
        dictionary.Add(4, "Four");
        dictionary.Add(5, "Five");
        dictionary.Add(6, "Six");
        dictionary.Add(7, "Seven");
        dictionary.Add(8, "Eight");
        dictionary.Add(9, "Nine");
        //dictionary.Add("Ten", 10);// error as only key, value pair of type int, string can be added

        //for i=0, key doesn't  exist error
        for (int i = 1; i <= dictionary.Count; i++)
        {
            //Can be accessed through indexers
            Console.WriteLine(dictionary[i]);
        }
        //Error : The given key was not present in the dictionary.
        //Console.WriteLine(dictionary[10]);