Bind Dictionary to dataProvider

Question

I have a class which stores data in a dictionary such as:
[Bindable]
public var data:Dictionary;
Person bill = new Person("bill");
data["bill"] = bill;
Ok, I have a DataGrid which I would like to bind to this
dictionary's values (i.e. the Person objects). I realize that the
"dataProvider" for a DataGrid can only be an ArrayCollection so is
there a nice way to get the dictionary values into an
ArrayCollection?
Or do I have to maintain a separate ArrayCollection just to
let the view bind to it?

Answer 1

If I needed to bind data to a dictionary , and have the data referenced in a collection I would do this.  This way , when you modify the dictionary , the datagrid will receive the updates.
public var dictionary:Object = {};
public function addPerson( person:Person ):void
   dictionary[person.id/name/identifier] = person;
   dispatchEvent(new Event("peopleChange"));
[Bindable(Event="peopleChange")]
public function get peopleCollection():ArrayCollection
  var collection:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection();
for( keys in the dictionary )  //Not actual Flex code , I forget how to loop over the keys of a hashmap
   collection.addItem( dictionary[key] );  // We are adding people to the collection
return collection;
<List/DataGrid dataProvider="peopleCollection" ... />