What is the use of ObservableCollection in .net?
ObservableCollection is a collection that allows code outside the collection be aware of when changes to the collection (add, move, remove) occur. It is used heavily in WPF and Silverlight but its use is not limited to there. Code can add event handlers to see when the collection has changed and then react through the event handler to do some additional processing. This may be changing a UI or performing some other operation.
The code below doesn't really do anything but demonstrates how you'd attach a handler in a class and then use the event args to react in some way to the changes. WPF already has many operations like refreshing the UI built in so you get them for free when using ObservableCollections
class Handler
{
private ObservableCollection<string> collection;
public Handler()
{
collection = new ObservableCollection<string>();
collection.CollectionChanged += HandleChange;
}
private void HandleChange(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
foreach (var x in e.NewItems)
{
// do something
}
foreach (var y in e.OldItems)
{
//do something
}
if (e.Action == NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Move)
{
//do something
}
}
}
An ObservableCollection works essentially like a regular collection except that it implements
the interfaces:
INotifyCollectionChanged,
INotifyPropertyChanged
As such it is very useful when you want to know when the collection has changed. An event is triggered that will tell the user what entries have been added/removed or moved.
More importantly they are very useful when using databinding on a form.
From Pro C# 5.0 and the .NET 4.5 Framework
The ObservableCollection<T> class is very useful in that it has the ability to inform external objects
when its contents have changed in some way (as you might guess, working with
ReadOnlyObservableCollection<T> is very similar, but read-only in nature).
In many ways, working with
the ObservableCollection<T> is identical to working with List<T>, given that both of these classes
implement the same core interfaces. What makes the ObservableCollection<T> class unique is that this
class supports an event named CollectionChanged. This event will fire whenever a new item is inserted, a current item is removed (or relocated), or if the entire collection is modified.
Like any event, CollectionChanged is defined in terms of a delegate, which in this case is
NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler. This delegate can call any method that takes an object as the first parameter, and a NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs as the second. Consider the following Main()
method, which populates an observable collection containing Person objects and wires up the
CollectionChanged event:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Make a collection to observe and add a few Person objects.
ObservableCollection<Person> people = new ObservableCollection<Person>()
{
new Person{ FirstName = "Peter", LastName = "Murphy", Age = 52 },
new Person{ FirstName = "Kevin", LastName = "Key", Age = 48 },
};
// Wire up the CollectionChanged event.
people.CollectionChanged += people_CollectionChanged;
// Now add a new item.
people.Add(new Person("Fred", "Smith", 32));
// Remove an item.
people.RemoveAt(0);
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void people_CollectionChanged(object sender, System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
// What was the action that caused the event?
Console.WriteLine("Action for this event: {0}", e.Action);
// They removed something.
if (e.Action == System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Remove)
{
Console.WriteLine("Here are the OLD items:");
foreach (Person p in e.OldItems)
{
Console.WriteLine(p.ToString());
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
// They added something.
if (e.Action == System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add)
{
// Now show the NEW items that were inserted.
Console.WriteLine("Here are the NEW items:");
foreach (Person p in e.NewItems)
{
Console.WriteLine(p.ToString());
}
}
}
}
The incoming NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs parameter defines two important properties,
OldItems and NewItems, which will give you a list of items that were currently in the collection before the event fired, and the new items that were involved in the change. However, you will want to examine these lists only under the correct circumstances. Recall that the CollectionChanged event can fire when
items are added, removed, relocated, or reset. To discover which of these actions triggered the event,
you can use the Action property of NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs. The Action property can be
tested against any of the following members of the NotifyCollectionChangedAction enumeration:
public enum NotifyCollectionChangedAction
{
Add = 0,
Remove = 1,
Replace = 2,
Move = 3,
Reset = 4,
}
Explanation without Code
For those wanting an answer without any code behind it (boom-tish) with a story (to help you remember):
Normal Collections - No Notifications
Every now and then I go to NYC and my wife asks me to buy stuff. So I take a shopping list with me. The list has a lot of things on there like:
Louis Vuitton handbag ($5000)
Clive Christian’s Imperial Majesty Perfume ($215,000 )
Gucci Sunglasses ($2000)
hahaha well I"m not buying that stuff. So I cross them off and remove them from the list and I add instead:
12 dozen Titleist golf balls.
12 lb bowling ball.
So I usually come home without the goods and she's never pisssssssed off the thing is that she doesn't know about what i take off the list and what I add onto it; she gets no notifications.
The ObservableCollection - notifications when changes made
Now, whenever I remove something from the list: she get's a notification.
The observable collection works just the same way. If you add or remove something to or from it: someone is notified.
And when they are notified, then bunker down or run for cover! Of course, the consequences are customisable via an event handler.
Silly story, but hopefully you'll remember the concept now.
One of the biggest uses is that you can bind UI components to one, and they'll respond appropriately if the collection's contents change. For example, if you bind a ListView's ItemsSource to one, the ListView's contents will automatically update if you modify the collection.
EDIT:
Here's some sample code from MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms748365.aspx
In C#, hooking the ListBox to the collection could be as easy as
listBox.ItemsSource = NameListData;
though if you haven't hooked the list up as a static resource and defined NameItemTemplate you may want to override PersonName's ToString(). For example:
public override ToString()
{
return string.Format("{0} {1}", this.FirstName, this.LastName);
}
it is a collection which is used to notify mostly UI to change in the collection , it supports automatic notification.
Mainly used in WPF ,
Where say suppose you have UI with a list box and add button and when you click on he button an object of type suppose person will be added to the obseravablecollection and you bind this collection to the ItemSource of Listbox , so as soon as you added a new item in the collection , Listbox will update itself and add one more item in it.
class FooObservableCollection : ObservableCollection<Foo>
{
protected override void InsertItem(int index, Foo item)
{
base.Add(index, Foo);
if (this.CollectionChanged != null)
this.CollectionChanged(this, new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs (NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add, item, index);
}
}
var collection = new FooObservableCollection();
collection.CollectionChanged += CollectionChanged;
collection.Add(new Foo());
void CollectionChanged (object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
Foo newItem = e.NewItems.OfType<Foo>().First();
}
ObservableCollection Caveat
Mentioned above (Said Roohullah Allem)
What makes the ObservableCollection class unique is that this
class supports an event named CollectionChanged.
Keep this in mind...If you adding a large number of items to an ObservableCollection the UI will also update that many times. This can really gum up or freeze your UI.
A work around would be to create a new list, add all the items then set your property to the new list. This hits the UI once. Again...this is for adding a large number of items.
Related
I am using a ListView control to display some lines of data. There is a background task which receives external updates to the content of the list. The newly received data may contain less, more or the same number of items and also the items itself may have changed.
The ListView.ItemsSource is bound to an OberservableCollection (_itemList) so that changes to _itemList should be visible also in the ListView.
_itemList = new ObservableCollection<PmemCombItem>();
_itemList.CollectionChanged += new NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler(OnCollectionChanged);
L_PmemCombList.ItemsSource = _itemList;
In order to avoid refreshing the complete ListView I do a simple comparison of the newly retrieved list with the current _itemList, change items which are not the same and add/remove items if necessary. The collection "newList" contains newly created objects, so replacing an item in _itemList is correctly sending a "Refresh" notification (which I can log by using the event handler OnCollectionChanged of the ObservableCollection`)
Action action = () =>
{
for (int i = 0; i < newList.Count; i++)
{
// item exists in old list -> replace if changed
if (i < _itemList.Count)
{
if (!_itemList[i].SameDataAs(newList[i]))
_itemList[i] = newList[i];
}
// new list contains more items -> add items
else
_itemList.Add(newList[i]);
}
// new list contains less items -> remove items
for (int i = _itemList.Count - 1; i >= newList.Count; i--)
_itemList.RemoveAt(i);
};
Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Background, action);
My problem is that if many items are changed in this loop, the ListView is NOT refreshing and the data on screen stay as they are...and this I don't understand.
Even a simpler version like this (exchanging ALL elements)
List<PmemCombItem> newList = new List<PmemCombItem>();
foreach (PmemViewItem comb in combList)
newList.Add(new PmemCombItem(comb));
if (_itemList.Count == newList.Count)
for (int i = 0; i < newList.Count; i++)
_itemList[i] = newList[i];
else
{
_itemList.Clear();
foreach (PmemCombItem item in newList)
_itemList.Add(item);
}
is not working properly
Any clue on this?
UPDATE
If I call the following code manually after updating all elements, everything works fine
OnCollectionChanged(new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Reset));
But of course this causes the UI to update everything which I still want to avoid.
After a change, you can use the following to refresh the Listview, it's more easy
listView.Items.Refresh();
This is what I had to do to get it to work.
MyListView.ItemsSource = null;
MyListView.ItemsSource = MyDataSource;
I know that's an old question, but I just stumbled upon this issue. I didn't really want to use the null assignation trick or the refresh for just a field that was updated.
So, after looking at MSDN, I found this article:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.componentmodel.inotifypropertychanged?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=netframework-4.7.2
To summarize, you just need the item to implement this interface and it will automatically detect that this object can be observed.
public class MyItem : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private string status;
public string Status
{
get => status;
set
{
OnPropertyChanged(nameof(Status));
status = value;
}
}
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
[NotifyPropertyChangedInvocator]
protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged([CallerMemberName] string propertyName = null)
{
PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
}
So, the event will be called everytime someone changes the Status. And, in your case, the listview will add a handler automatically on the PropertyChanged event.
This doesn't really handle the issue in your case (add/remove).
But for that, I would suggest that you have a look at BindingList<T>
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.componentmodel.bindinglist-1?view=netframework-4.7.2
Using the same pattern, your listview will be updated properly without using any tricks.
You should not reset ItemsSource of ListView each time observable collection changed. Just set proper binding that will do your trick. In xaml:
<ListView ItemsSource='{Binding ItemsCollection}'
...
</ListView>
And in code-behind (suggest to use MVVM) property that will be responsible for holding _itemList:
public ObservableCollection<PmemCombItem> ItemsCollection
{
get
{
if (_itemList == null)
{
_itemList = new ObservableCollection<PmemCombItem>();
}
return _itemList;
}
}
UPDATE:
There is similar post which most probably will Answer your question: How do I update an ObservableCollection via a worker thread?
I found a way to do it. It is not really that great but it works.
YourList.ItemsSource = null;
// Update the List containing your elements (lets call it x)
YourList.ItemsSource = x;
this should refresh your ListView (it works for my UAP :) )
An alternative on Xopher's answer.
MyListView.ItemsSource = MyDataSource.ToList();
This refreshes the Listview because it's a other list.
Please check this answer:
Passing ListView Items to Commands using Prism Library
List view Items needs to notify about changes (done is setter)
public ObservableCollection<Model.Step> Steps
{
get { return _steps; }
set { SetProperty(ref _steps, value); }
}
and UpdateSourceTrigger need to be set in xaml
<Image Source="{Binding ImageData, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" />
I am trying to bind the results of a LINQ query of an ObservableCollection to my UI and I seem to have it halfway working. If I add a new item to the ObservableCollection, I can raise CollectionChanged and call PropertyChanged on the property and it will update. Unfortunately, modifying a property of an item doesn't cause CollectionChanged to fire and I can't figure out how to make it fire. I have tried methods that others have posted such as TrulyObservableColection with no luck. Is there any way to force CollectionChanged to fire? Or is there another route I can take in this situation. I would rather not have to abandon LINQ. Any advice would be appreciated.
private ObservableCollection<Worker> _workers = new ObservableCollection<Worker>();
public ObservableCollection<Worker> Workers
{
get { return _workers; }
}
public IEnumerable<Worker> WorkersEmployed
{
get { return GameContainer.Game.Workers.Where(w => w.EmployerID == this.ID); }
}
GameContainer.Game.Workers.CollectionChanged += Workers_CollectionChanged;
private void Workers_CollectionChanged(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
RaisePropertyChanged(() => WorkersEmployed);
}
This works assuming a new entry is added to the collection. How can I achieve the same result when an item is simply modified (such as Workers' EmployerID in this case)?
How can I achieve the same result when an item is simply modified (such as Workers' EmployerID in this case)?
You would need to subscribe to the property changed on each worker, and raise the appropriate PropertyChanged event on the resulting collection.
Another option, however, would be to use WPF's built in ICollectionView filtering instead of exposing a separate property.
I want to add item to listview control. This is a bit of code :
this.lView.ListViewItemSorter = null;
ListViewItem[] lvitems = new ListViewItem[ListMyObjects.Count];
int index = 0;
foreach (MyObject object in ListMyObjects)
{
ListViewItem item = new ListViewItem();
item.Text = object.Name;
lvitems[index++] = item;
}
this.lView.BeginUpdate();
this.lView.Items.AddRange(lvitems); // Slow in here with debugger
this.lView.EndUpdate();
I'm only add about 1000 item but it's very slowly. It's spend about 15secs to finish.
why does anyone know the reason ? Thank in advance.
Edit :
I have customized listview before.
public partial class MyListView: ListView
{
public MyListView()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.View = View.Details;
this.FullRowSelect = true;
this.DoubleBuffered = true;
}
private bool mCreating;
private bool mReadOnly;
protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e)
{
mCreating = true;
base.OnHandleCreated(e);
mCreating = false;
}
public bool ReadOnly
{
get { return mReadOnly; }
set { mReadOnly = value; }
}
protected override void OnItemCheck(ItemCheckEventArgs e)
{
if (!mCreating && mReadOnly) e.NewValue = e.CurrentValue;
base.OnItemCheck(e);
}
}
I do it because i don't want to hang when i use multiple threading. I don't know what does this influenced to it ?
You could make it much faster by enabling virtual mode.
However, that will take some work.
The preferred way of adding multiple items is to use the AddRange() method. However if you must add the items one by one you can use the BeginUpdate() and EndUpdate() methods around your loop. Following is from the MSDN
The preferred way to add multiple items to a ListView is to use the AddRange method of the ListView.ListViewItemCollection (accessed through the Items property of the ListView). This enables you to add an array of items to the list in a single operation. However, if you want to add items one at a time using the Add method of the ListView.ListViewItemCollection class, you can use the BeginUpdate method to prevent the control from repainting the ListView every time that an item is added.
Appologies for a more architectural solution, but if your domain objects are large this might cause the bottleneck (reading the comments it sounds like they may be slowing it down). Before you get to the presentation layer you could flatten them into some (very simple) domain transfer objects (DTOs): literally just a bag of getters-and-setters.
A tool like AutoMapper could potentially take a lot of the donkey work out there
That way your domain objects stay in the business logic domain (where they belong) and your presentation layer just gets the data in needs from the DTO.
Sorry for the non-code-based suggestion :) good luck!
I have a listbox on my WinForms where users can move the items up and down and that listbox is as well the same as a list I have and I was wondering what would be the most efficient way to maintain both synchronized.
for example to move an item down I have:
int i = this.recoveryList.SelectedIndex;
object o = this.recoveryList.SelectedItem;
if (i < recoveryList.Items.Count - 1)
{
this.recoveryList.Items.RemoveAt(i);
this.recoveryList.Items.Insert(i + 1, o);
this.recoveryList.SelectedIndex = i + 1;
}
And I have:
public List<RouteList> Recovery = new List<RouteList>();
Which I would like to maintain updated against the listbox.
Should I simple clear Recovery and update with the current listbox data or is there a better way to update both when move up and down ?
I am mainly asking because the types from the listbox to the list are different.
.Net provides built-in support for this type of behavior. In order to use it, you need to change the type of your Recovery list to:
public BindingList<RouteList> Recovery = new BindingList<RouteList>();
And then you use that BindingList as the DataSource in your controls:
listBox1.DataSource = Recovery;
Here's a simple example using a BindingList of String. I have two listBox's on the form, and they both stay in sync as the selected element gets swapped with the first element in the list:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private readonly BindingList<string> list = new BindingList<string> { "apple", "pear", "grape", "taco", "screwdriver" };
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
listBox1.DataSource = list;
listBox2.DataSource = list;
}
private void listBox1_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
var tmp = list[0];
list[0] = list[listBox1.SelectedIndex];
list[listBox1.SelectedIndex] = tmp;
}
}
The proper way is to change the underlying object and then have the UI Control react to that change.
For the ListBox to react to changes in your object collection (your List) you'd need to use an ObservableCollection instead. It's like the INotifyPropertyChanged for collections.
Then you make your up/down actions change the collection, NOT the UI.
EDIT
I am not saying to add an observer on TOP of the collection. I'm saying to change the type of your collection. Don't use List, use ObservableCollection. It works (largely) the same way but notifies the bound UI Controls of changes to it's items.
As for an example, please Google for it. That's what i'd have to do to provide one anyway..
This little bit of code will help me describe my problem:
public class Car
{
...
}
public class CarQueue : ObservableCollection<Car>
{
public IEnumerable Brands
{
get { return (from Car c in this.Items select c.Brand).Distinct(); }
}
}
Ok now I have an instance of CarQueue class bound to a DataGrid. When I add a Car object to the queue the datagrid updates fine by itself, but I also have a listbox bound to the 'Brands' property which doesn't update. Here is a simple sequence of code to explain:
CarQueue cq = new CarQueue();
DataGrid1.ItemsSource = cq;
ListBox1.ItemsSource = cq.Brands; // all above done during window load
...
Car c;
cq.Add(c); // datagrid updates, but not listbox
Does the listbox not update because it is bound to a property with dynamic LINQ query?
One other thing I tried was inheriting INotifyPropertyChanged and adding a new event handler to the CollectionChanged event (in my CarQueue constructor):
this.CollectionChanged += new System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler(CarQueue_CollectionChanged);
Then in the event handler:
void CarQueue_CollectionChanged(object sender, System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Brands"));
}
This didn't work either. So does anyone know what the problem is? Thanks
There are a couple of problems here.
The Brands property is a sequence built on the fly by LINQ when it is asked for it. WPF only asks for it during the initial binding: it has no way of knowing that if it were to ask again it would get a different answer, so it doesn't. To get WPF to track changes to the Brands collection, you would need to expose Brands as a collection, and have INotifyCollectionChanged implemented on that collection -- for example by making Brands an ObservableCollection. One way to do this is using Bindable LINQ.
As an alternative, your second approach, of raising a PropertyChanged event for Brands, can be made to work. However, in order for this to work, you have to bind ItemsSource to Brands. (At the moment, you are assigning it, which means WPF forgets where the collection came from and just keeps its private copy of the values.) To do this, either use the {Binding} markup extension in XAML:
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Brands}" /> <!-- assumes DataContext is cq -->
or use BindingOperations.SetBinding:
BindingOperations.SetBinding(ListBox1, ListBox.ItemsSourceProperty,
new Binding("Brands") { Source = cq });