Implementing INotifyPropertyChanged - does a bette

Question

Microsoft should have implemented something snappy for INotifyPropertyChanged, like in the automatic properties, just specify {get; set; notify;} I think it makes a lot of sense to do it. Or are there any complications to do it?

Can we ourselves implement something like 'notify' in our properties. Is there a graceful solution for implementing INotifyPropertyChanged in your class or the only way to do it is by raising the PropertyChanged event in each property.

If not can we write something to auto-generate the piece of code to raise PropertyChanged event?

Answer 1

I really like Marc's solution, but I think it can be slightly improved to avoid using a "magic string" (which doesn't support refactoring). Instead of using the property name as a string, it's easy to make it a lambda expression :

private string name;
public string Name
{
    get { return name; }
    set { SetField(ref name, value, () => Name); }
}

Just add the following methods to Marc's code, it will do the trick :

protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged<T>(Expression<Func<T>> selectorExpression)
{
    if (selectorExpression == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException("selectorExpression");
    MemberExpression body = selectorExpression.Body as MemberExpression;
    if (body == null)
        throw new ArgumentException("The body must be a member expression");
    OnPropertyChanged(body.Member.Name);
}

protected bool SetField<T>(ref T field, T value, Expression<Func<T>> selectorExpression)
{
    if (EqualityComparer<T>.Default.Equals(field, value)) return false;
    field = value;
    OnPropertyChanged(selectorExpression);
    return true;
}

BTW, this was inspired by this blog post updated URL

Answer 2

If you are using dynamics in .NET 4.5 you don't need to worry about INotifyPropertyChanged.

dynamic obj = new ExpandoObject();
obj.Name = "John";

if Name is bound to some control it just works fine.

Answer 3

Without using something like postsharp, the minimal version I use uses something like:

public class Data : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    // boiler-plate
    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
    protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
    {
        PropertyChangedEventHandler handler = PropertyChanged;
        if (handler != null) handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
    }
    protected bool SetField<T>(ref T field, T value, string propertyName)
    {
        if (EqualityComparer<T>.Default.Equals(field, value)) return false;
        field = value;
        OnPropertyChanged(propertyName);
        return true;
    }

    // props
    private string name;
    public string Name
    {
        get { return name; }
        set { SetField(ref name, value, "Name"); }
    }
}

Each property is then just something like:

    private string name;
    public string Name
    {
        get { return name; }
        set { SetField(ref name, value, "Name"); }
    }

which isn't huge; it can also be used as a base-class if you want. The bool return from SetField tells you if it was a no-op, in case you want to apply other logic.

---

or even easier with C# 5:

protected bool SetField<T>(ref T field, T value,
    [CallerMemberName] string propertyName = null)
{...}

which can be called like this:

set { SetField(ref name, value); }

with which the compiler will add the "Name" automatically.

---

C# 6.0 makes the implementation easier:

protected void OnPropertyChanged([CallerMemberName] string propertyName = null)
{
    PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}

---

...and now with C#7:

private string name;
public string Name
{
    get => name;
    set => SetField(ref name, value);
}

Answer 4

I think people should pay a little more attention to performance, it really does impact the UI when there are a lot of objects to be bind (think of a grid with 10,000+ rows) or if the object's value changes frequently (realtime monitoring app).

I took various implementation found here and elsewhere and did a comparison, check it out perfomance comparison of INotifyPropertyChanged implementations.

---

Here is a peek at the result

Answer 5

Use this

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Reflection.Emit;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies;


public static class ObservableFactory
{
    public static T Create<T>(T target)
    {
        if (!typeof(T).IsInterface)
            throw new ArgumentException("Target should be an interface", "target");

        var proxy = new Observable<T>(target);
        return (T)proxy.GetTransparentProxy();
    }
}

internal class Observable<T> : RealProxy, INotifyPropertyChanged, INotifyPropertyChanging
{
    private readonly T target;

    internal Observable(T target)
        : base(ImplementINotify(typeof(T)))
    {
        this.target = target;
    }

    public override IMessage Invoke(IMessage msg)
    {
        var methodCall = msg as IMethodCallMessage;

        if (methodCall != null)
        {
            return HandleMethodCall(methodCall);
        }

        return null;
    }

    public event PropertyChangingEventHandler PropertyChanging;
    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;



    IMessage HandleMethodCall(IMethodCallMessage methodCall)
    {
        var isPropertySetterCall = methodCall.MethodName.StartsWith("set_");
        var propertyName = isPropertySetterCall ? methodCall.MethodName.Substring(4) : null;

        if (isPropertySetterCall)
        {
            OnPropertyChanging(propertyName);
        }

        try
        {
            object methodCalltarget = target;

            if (methodCall.MethodName == "add_PropertyChanged" || methodCall.MethodName == "remove_PropertyChanged"||
                methodCall.MethodName == "add_PropertyChanging" || methodCall.MethodName == "remove_PropertyChanging")
            {
                methodCalltarget = this;
            }

            var result = methodCall.MethodBase.Invoke(methodCalltarget, methodCall.InArgs);

            if (isPropertySetterCall)
            {
                OnPropertyChanged(methodCall.MethodName.Substring(4));
            }

            return new ReturnMessage(result, null, 0, methodCall.LogicalCallContext, methodCall);
        }
        catch (TargetInvocationException invocationException)
        {
            var exception = invocationException.InnerException;
            return new ReturnMessage(exception, methodCall);
        }
    }

    protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
    {
        var handler = PropertyChanged;
        if (handler != null) handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
    }

    protected virtual void OnPropertyChanging(string propertyName)
    {
        var handler = PropertyChanging;
        if (handler != null) handler(this, new PropertyChangingEventArgs(propertyName));
    }

    public static Type ImplementINotify(Type objectType)
    {
        var tempAssemblyName = new AssemblyName(Guid.NewGuid().ToString());

        var dynamicAssembly = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly(
            tempAssemblyName, AssemblyBuilderAccess.RunAndCollect);

        var moduleBuilder = dynamicAssembly.DefineDynamicModule(
            tempAssemblyName.Name,
            tempAssemblyName + ".dll");

        var typeBuilder = moduleBuilder.DefineType(
            objectType.FullName, TypeAttributes.Public | TypeAttributes.Interface | TypeAttributes.Abstract);

        typeBuilder.AddInterfaceImplementation(objectType);
        typeBuilder.AddInterfaceImplementation(typeof(INotifyPropertyChanged));
        typeBuilder.AddInterfaceImplementation(typeof(INotifyPropertyChanging));
        var newType = typeBuilder.CreateType();
        return newType;
    }
}

}

Answer 6

Whilst there are obviously lots of ways to do this, with the exception of the AOP magic answers, none of the answers seem to look at setting a Model's property directly from the view model without having a local field to reference.

The issue is you can't reference a property. However, you can use an Action to set that property.

protected bool TrySetProperty<T>(Action<T> property, T newValue, T oldValue, [CallerMemberName] string propertyName = null)
{
    if (EqualityComparer<T>.Default.Equals(oldValue, newValue))
    {
        return false;
    }

    property(newValue);
    RaisePropertyChanged(propertyName);
    return true;
}

This can be used like the following code extract.

public int Prop {
    get => model.Prop;
    set => TrySetProperty(x => model.Prop = x, value, model.Prop);
}

Check out this BitBucket repo for a full implementation of the method and a few different ways of achieving the same result, including a method that uses LINQ and a method that uses reflection. Do note that these methods are slower performance wise.