Why does IDictionary<TKey, TValue> extend ICollection<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>>?

Question

I am trying to create a custom ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue> for .NET 4.0. The approach is to keep a private Dictionary<TKey, TValue> object as well as flags to determine whether adding/removing and item assignment is allowed.

This works fine but I wanted to implement the IDictionary<TKey, TValue> interface for completeness. However, I notice that it extends ICollection<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>> whereas none of its properties or methods appear in the Dictionary<TKey, TValue> class. How is this possible? If the interface is implemented, why are ICollection members not exposed?

Furthermore, why does the Dictionary class need to implement ICollection in the first place?

Here is a rough implementation:

public sealed class ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue>:
    //IDictionary<TKey, TValue>,
    IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>>
{
    #region Members.

    public bool AllowListEdit { get; private set; }
    public bool AllowItemEdit { get; private set; }
    private Dictionary<TKey, TValue> Dictionary { get; set; }

    #endregion Members.

    #region Constructors.

    public ReadOnlyDictionary (bool allowListEdit, bool allowItemEdit) { this.AllowListEdit = allowListEdit; this.AllowItemEdit = allowItemEdit; this.Dictionary = new Dictionary<TKey, TValue>(); }
    public ReadOnlyDictionary (IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer, bool allowListEdit, bool allowItemEdit) { this.AllowListEdit = allowListEdit; this.AllowItemEdit = allowItemEdit; this.Dictionary = new Dictionary<TKey, TValue>(comparer); }
    public ReadOnlyDictionary (IDictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary, bool allowListEdit = false, bool allowItemEdit = false) : this(allowListEdit, allowItemEdit) { foreach (var pair in dictionary) { this.Dictionary.Add(pair.Key, pair.Value); } }
    public ReadOnlyDictionary (IDictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary, IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer, bool allowListEdit = false, bool allowItemEdit = false) : this(comparer, allowListEdit, allowItemEdit) { foreach (var pair in dictionary) { this.Dictionary.Add(pair.Key, pair.Value); } }

    #endregion Constructors.

    #region Properties.

    public int Count { get { return (this.Dictionary.Count); } }
    public IEqualityComparer<TKey> Comparer { get { return (this.Dictionary.Comparer); } }

    #endregion Properties.

    #region Methods.

    private void ThrowItemReadOnlyException () { if (this.AllowListEdit) { throw (new NotSupportedException("This collection does not allow editing items.")); } }
    private void ThrowListReadOnlyException () { if (this.AllowItemEdit) { throw (new NotSupportedException("This collection does not allow adding and removing items.")); } }
    public bool ContainsValue (TValue value) { return (this.Dictionary.ContainsValue(value)); }
    public void Clear () { this.ThrowListReadOnlyException(); this.Dictionary.Clear(); }

    #endregion Methods.

    #region Interface Implementation: IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>>.

    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator () { return (this.Dictionary.GetEnumerator()); }
    public IEnumerator<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>> GetEnumerator () { return (this.Dictionary.GetEnumerator()); }

    #endregion Interface Implementation: IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>>.

    #region Interface Implementation: ICollection<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>>.

    //public int Count { get { return (this.Dictionary.Count); } }
    //public bool IsReadOnly { get { return (this.AllowListEdit); } }

    //public bool Contains (KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> item) { throw (new NotImplementedException()); }
    //public void Clear () { throw (new NotImplementedException()); }
    //public void Add (KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> item) { throw (new NotImplementedException()); }
    //public void CopyTo (KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> [] array, int arrayIndex) { throw (new NotImplementedException()); }
    //public bool Remove (KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> item) { throw (new NotImplementedException()); }

    #endregion Interface Implementation: ICollection<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>>.

    #region Interface Implementation: IDictionary<TKey, TValue>.

    //====================================================================================================
    // Interface Implementation: IDictionary<TKey, TValue>.
    //====================================================================================================

    public Dictionary<TKey, TValue>.KeyCollection Keys { get { return (this.Dictionary.Keys); } }
    public Dictionary<TKey, TValue>.ValueCollection Values { get { return (this.Dictionary.Values); } }
    public TValue this [TKey key] { get { return (this.Dictionary [key]); } set { this.ThrowItemReadOnlyException(); this.Dictionary [key] = value; } }

    public void Add (TKey key, TValue value) { this.ThrowListReadOnlyException(); this.Dictionary.Add(key, value); }
    public bool ContainsKey (TKey key) { return (this.Dictionary.ContainsKey(key)); }
    public bool Remove (TKey key) { this.ThrowListReadOnlyException(); return (this.Dictionary.Remove(key)); }
    public bool TryGetValue (TKey key, out TValue value) { return (this.Dictionary.TryGetValue(key, out value)); }

    #endregion Interface Implementation: IDictionary<TKey, TValue>.
}

Answer 1

Dictionary<TKey, TValue> implements the ICollection<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>> interface explicitly.

As you can see on the MSDN page for Dictionary, these methods are listed under "Explicit interface implementations".

Explicitly implementing an interface means that those methods will not be available through the concrete type. You'll have to cast the dictionary to an ICollection<T> to be able to call them.

Dictionary<int, int> dict = new Dictionary<int, int>();
bool sync = dict.IsSynchronized; // not allowed

ICollection<KeyValuePair<int, int>> dict = new Dictionary<int, int>();
bool sync = dict.IsSynchronized; // allowed

More on explicit interface implementations: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288461(v=vs.71).aspx