How can I detect if this dictionary key exists in C#?

You can use ContainsKey:

if (dict.ContainsKey(key)) { ... }

or TryGetValue:

dict.TryGetValue(key, out value);

Update: according to a comment the actual class here is not an IDictionary but a PhysicalAddressDictionary, so the methods are Contains and TryGetValue but they work in the same way.

Example usage:

PhysicalAddressEntry entry;
PhysicalAddressKey key = c.PhysicalAddresses[PhysicalAddressKey.Home].Street;
if (c.PhysicalAddresses.TryGetValue(key, out entry))
{
    row["HomeStreet"] = entry;
}

Update 2: here is the working code (compiled by question asker)

PhysicalAddressEntry entry;
PhysicalAddressKey key = PhysicalAddressKey.Home;
if (c.PhysicalAddresses.TryGetValue(key, out entry))
{
    if (entry.Street != null)
    {
        row["HomeStreet"] = entry.Street.ToString();
    }
}

...with the inner conditional repeated as necessary for each key required. The TryGetValue is only done once per PhysicalAddressKey (Home, Work, etc).

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What is the type of c.PhysicalAddresses? If it's Dictionary<TKey,TValue>, then you can use the ContainsKey method.

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I use a Dictionary and because of the repetetiveness and possible missing keys, I quickly patched together a small method:

 private static string GetKey(IReadOnlyDictionary<string, string> dictValues, string keyValue)
 {
     return dictValues.ContainsKey(keyValue) ? dictValues[keyValue] : "";
 }

Calling it:

var entry = GetKey(dictList,"KeyValue1");

Gets the job done.

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PhysicalAddressDictionary.TryGetValue

 public bool TryGetValue (
    PhysicalAddressKey key,
    out PhysicalAddressEntry physicalAddress
     )

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Here is a little something I cooked up today. Seems to work for me. Basically you override the Add method in your base namespace to do a check and then call the base's Add method in order to actually add it. Hope this works for you

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections;

namespace Main
{
    internal partial class Dictionary<TKey, TValue> : System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<TKey, TValue>
    {
        internal new virtual void Add(TKey key, TValue value)
        {   
            if (!base.ContainsKey(key))
            {
                base.Add(key, value);
            }
        }
    }

    internal partial class List<T> : System.Collections.Generic.List<T>
    {
        internal new virtual void Add(T item)
        {
            if (!base.Contains(item))
            {
                base.Add(item);
            }
        }
    }

    public class Program
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            Dictionary<int, string> dic = new Dictionary<int, string>();
            dic.Add(1,"b");
            dic.Add(1,"a");
            dic.Add(2,"c");
            dic.Add(1, "b");
            dic.Add(1, "a");
            dic.Add(2, "c");

            string val = "";
            dic.TryGetValue(1, out val);

            Console.WriteLine(val);
            Console.WriteLine(dic.Count.ToString());


            List<string> lst = new List<string>();
            lst.Add("b");
            lst.Add("a");
            lst.Add("c");
            lst.Add("b");
            lst.Add("a");
            lst.Add("c");

            Console.WriteLine(lst[2]);
            Console.WriteLine(lst.Count.ToString());
        }
    }
}

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