AjaxControlToolkit.CascadingDropDown.ParseKnownCategoryValuesString C# (CSharp) Method

        public static StringDictionary ParseKnownCategoryValuesString(string knownCategoryValues)
        {
            // Validate parameters
            if(knownCategoryValues == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("knownCategoryValues");

            var dictionary = new StringDictionary();
            if(knownCategoryValues != null)
                // Split into category/value pairs
                foreach(var knownCategoryValue in knownCategoryValues.Split(';')) {
                    // Split into category and value
                    var knownCategoryValuePair = knownCategoryValue.Split(':');
                    if(knownCategoryValuePair.Length == 2)
                        dictionary.Add(knownCategoryValuePair[0].ToLowerInvariant(), knownCategoryValuePair[1]);
                }

            return dictionary;
        }