[API Proposal]: Add extension method AsReadOnly() for IDictionary<TKey, TValue>

[Mrxx99]

Background and motivation

Like the List<T> has a method AsReadOnly() I would like to propose the same for the Dictionary.
This could lead to more clean and fluent code, when you can call AsReadOnly at the end of a call chain instead of creating a new instance of ReadOnlyDictionary manually.

I am aware that Dictionary already implements IReadOnlyDictionary but only using the ReadOnlyDictionary it is really immutable without the possibility to cast it back to (I)Dictionary.

API Proposal

namespace System.Collections.Generic
{
    public static class CollectionExtensions
    {
+       public static ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue> AsReadOnly(this IDictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary)
+            => new ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue>(dictionary);
    }
}

API Usage

private Dictionary<string, string> _theDictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();

public IReadOnlyDictionary<string, string> TheDictionary => _theDictionary.AsReadOnly();

Alternative Designs

The origianl proposal (as can be read in the comments, an extension method is preferred):

public class Dictionary<TKey, TValue> : IDictionary<TKey, TValue>, IDictionary...
{
+        public ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue> AsReadOnly()
+            => new ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue>(this);
}

Risks

I don't see any it's just one extension method more calling a very common constructor.

[DevDrake]

I was scratching my head thinking about this proposal.
If we need the functionality i would be more opt to extension function or default interface implementation for IDictionary<,>
public ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue> AsReadOnly(this IDictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary) => new ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue>(dictionary)
as this will cover more than just Dictionary.
also this is already used in runtime/src/libraries/System.ComponentModel.Composition/src/System/ComponentModel/Composition/MetadataServices.cs for example.
I'm not very convinced we need it at all.
IMHO we should go more in the #31573 direction

[eiriktsarpalis]

We'd probably want to express this as an extension method due to codegen size concerns. How about this?

namespace System.Collections.Generic
{
    public static class CollectionExtensions
    {
+       public static ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue> AsReadOnly(this IDictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary)
+            => new ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue>(dictionary);
    }
}

cc @jkotas @GrabYourPitchforks

[Mrxx99]

I agree, I think it does make more sense as extension method.

[mattjohnsonpint]

Is this API still up for consideration?

[eiriktsarpalis]

It is, but we're not prioritizing it for .NET 6.

[eiriktsarpalis]

@Mrxx99 would it be possible to update your API proposal following the API proposal template? Please also change the API diff so that it's expressed as an extension method as #33033 (comment)

[Mrxx99]

@eiriktsarpalis done.

[terrajobst]

Video

• This makes sense, but it seems we should be consistent and offer one for ReadOnlyCollection<T>, which today only exists as instance methods on List<T> and Array.

namespace System.Collections.Generic
{
    public static class CollectionExtensions
    {
        public static ReadOnlyCollection<T> AsReadOnly<T>(this IList<T> list);
        public static ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue> AsReadOnly<TKey, TValue>(this IDictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary);
    }
}

[eiriktsarpalis]

@Mrxx99 would you be interested in providing an implementation?

[Mrxx99]

@eiriktsarpalis Yes, I would be interested. Also thanks for moving this issue forward. Should I also update the proposal to also include the extension method on IList?

[eiriktsarpalis]

Should I also update the proposal to also include the extension method on IList?

No that's fine, we use #33033 (comment) as the source of truth.