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.
I hope my title isnt too misleading, but heres a quick explanation.
As mentioned in the title im using WPF and I set the Itemsources of a Listbox to an ObservableCollection. I also made a DataTemplate for it to show the values correctly. However my problem is that when im changing the values in the ObservableCollection it doesnt show in the listbox.
The question is now, what am I doing wrong?
Heres the code:
public ObservableCollection<Employee> employees;
employees = DatabaseControl.GetEmployees();
Employee_ComboBox.ItemsSource = employees;
Then im switching out the whole Collection:
private void save_Employee_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
deactivateEmployee();
if (isnewEmployee)
{
DatabaseControl.AddEmployee(employee_firstName.Text, employee_lastName.Text, employee_phoneNumber.Text, employee_city.Text, employee_address.Text);
isnewEmployee = false;
}
if (updateEmployee)
{
DatabaseControl.UpdateEmployee(((Employee)Employee_ComboBox.SelectedItem).ID, employee_firstName.Text, employee_lastName.Text, employee_phoneNumber.Text, employee_city.Text, employee_address.Text);
updateEmployee = false;
}
employees = DatabaseControl.GetEmployees();
Employee_ComboBox.ItemsSource = employees;
}
But this doesnt seem to work out as it should. So what am I doing wrong here?
GetEmpoyees() returns an ObservableCollection btw.
The point of the ObservableCollection<Employee> is that when you bind to it then the UI will react when you add/remove items from it,
but right now you are adding items to another instance.
If you don't want to change your design too much then I would suggest having the DatabaseControl.GetEmployees() return an IList and put the result into the employees ObservableCollection
A simple approach that works well for not too many employees, but may perform poorly if you have many thousands of employees is to clear and add all
IList<Employee> result = DatabaseControl.GetEmployees();
employees.Clear();
foreach (Employee employee in result)
{
employees.Add(employee);
}
A more clean design IMHO would be to instead create an Employee instance outside of your DatabaseControl and then both send that to the DatabaseControl and add it to the employees collection.
Also - you may want to consider using a ViewModel with an ICommand Save and a property ObservableCollection<Employee> {get; private set;} and binding to those from your view.
If the employees collection is the same, then the combobox will not see any change. Therefore first assign null to the items source:
Employee_ComboBox.ItemsSource = null;
Employee_ComboBox.ItemsSource = employees;
Considering you are not using bindings, have you tried:
Employee_ComboBox.InvalidateVisual();
Hope it helps!
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 have a DataGrid that gets its data updated every few seconds via a Thread. The DataGrid needs to offer Column Header sorting, grouping and filtering.
I currently have a DataGrid bound to a ICollectionView and the source of the ICollectionView is an ObservableCollection. Which seems to be the good way to do it from what I read on other threads.
The sort-ing "works" but it gets lost when the ICollectionView.Source gets updated following an update of the ObservableCollection. I have tried saving the SortDescriptions before the update and re-add it to the ICollectionView after the update is done. But it's the same result.
May someone point me to what I'm missing?
Edit Here's some code...
View (XAML)
<DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding CollectionView, Source={StaticResource ViewModel}}>
ViewModel
public ICollectionView CollectionView
{
get
{
collectionViewSource.Source = dataColl;
if (SortDescriptions != null)
{
foreach (SortDescription sd in SortDescriptions)
{
collectionViewSource.View.SortDescriptions.Add(sd);
}
}
collectionViewSource.View.Refresh();
return collectionViewSource.View;
}
}
public ObservableCollection<SomeObject> DataColl
{
get { return dataColl; }
private set
{
this.dataColl= value;
OnPropertyChanged("CollectionView");
}
}
Following is the method that updates the data every few seconds...
private void UpdateData()
{
while (true)
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(mDataRefreshRate);
// SortDescriptions is a Property of the ViewModel class.
SortDescriptions = collectionViewSource.View.SortDescriptions;
ObservableCollection<SomeObject> wDataColl
= new ObservableCollection<SomeObject>();
//... Irrelevant code that puts the data in wDataColl ...
DataColl= wDataColl;
}
}
[YourObservableCollection].ViewHandler.View.Filter
+= new FilterEventHandler(myFilterHandler);
private void myFilterHandler(object sender, FilterEventArgs e)
{
}
Can be used to directly add your filter handler and you can do the same with SortDescriptions to Add/Remove
[YourObservableCollection].ViewHandler.View.SortDescriptions.Add(mySortDescription);
If you are doing allot of sorting and filtering best to create own class encapsulating a CollectionViewSource and implement adding and removing SortDescriptions and Filtering etc
When you say:
The sort "works" but it gets lost when the ICollectionView.Source gets
updated following an update of the ObservableCollection
What do you mean by update? you mean you are changing the Source? Rather than adding/removing items from the collection?
EDIT based on your XAML example you added:
<DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding CollectionView, Source={StaticResource ViewModel}}>
You are binding itemsource to the CollectionViewSource where you should bind the datacontext to it:
Example:
<Page.Resources>
<CollectionViewSource x:Key="myViewSource"
Source="{Binding CollectionView, Source={StaticResource ViewModel}}"
/>
</Page.Resources>
In page:
<Grid DataContext="{StaticResource myViewSource}">
<DataGrid x:Name="myGrid" ItemsSource="{Binding}"...
Or something along those lines
EDIT again didnt see code scroll down :p
ObservableCollection<SomeObject> wDataColl= new ObservableCollection<SomeObject>();
You create new instance every time of collection lol this is main problem
Also:
public ICollectionView CollectionView
{
get
{
collectionViewSource.Source = dataColl;
if (SortDescriptions != null)
{
foreach (SortDescription sd in SortDescriptions)
{
collectionViewSource.View.SortDescriptions.Add(sd);
}
}
collectionViewSource.View.Refresh();
return collectionViewSource.View;
}
}
Here where you return collection you are setting the Source and adding the SortDescriptions and also refreshing the view every time, you only need set these values once
You would only call refresh on the View if you add/remove SortDescriptions
I think you should get to grips with basics of CollectionViewSource
The problem is that you swap out the entire ObservableCollection every time you add new data.
ObservableCollection<SomeObject> wDataColl= new ObservableCollection<SomeObject>();
... Unrelevant code that puts the data in wDataColl ...
DataColl= wDataColl;
Make sure to use Add to the existing collection instead (perhaps after using Clear() first if that is necessary)... If you still have problems after that please comment and i will try to help.
Also, try to avoid using the Refresh() as it rebuilds the entire view and is unnecessarily expensive. If you do sorting, adding, removing etc. the correct way use of Refresh() isn't needed.
I have a datagrid in my wpf application and I have a simple problem. I have a generic list and I want to bind this collection to my datagrid data source every time an object is being added to the collection. and I'm not interested to use observable collection.
the point is I'm using the same method somewhere else and that works fine. but this time when i press Add button an object is added and datagrid updates correctly but from the second item added to collection datagrid does not update anymore.
Here is the Code :
private void btnAddItem_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
OrderDetailObjects.Add(new OrderDetailObject
{
Price = currentitem.Price.Value,
Quantity = int.Parse(txtQuantity.Text),
Title = currentitem.DisplayName,
TotalPrice = currentitem.Price.Value * int.Parse(txtQuantity.Text)
});
dgOrderDetail.ItemsSource = OrderDetailObjects;
dgOrderDetail.UpdateLayout();
}
any idea ?
The ItemsSource is always the same, a reference to your collection, no change, no update. You could null it out before:
dgOrderDetail.ItemsSource = null;
dgOrderDetail.ItemsSource = OrderDetailObjects;
Alternatively you could also just refresh the Items:
dgOrderDetail.ItemsSource = OrderDetailObjects; //Preferably do this somewhere else, not in the add method.
dgOrderDetail.Items.Refresh();
I do not think you actually want to call UpdateLayout there...
(Refusing to use an ObservableCollection is not quite a good idea)
I also found that just doing
dgOrderDetails.Items.Refresh();
would also accomplish the same behavior.
If you bind the ItemSource to a filtered list with for example Lambda its not updated.
Use ICollectionView to solve this problem (Comment dont work):
//WindowMain.tvTemplateSolutions.ItemsSource = this.Context.Solutions.Local.Where(obj=>obj.IsTemplate); // templates
ICollectionView viewTemplateSolution = CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(this.Context.Solutions.Local);
viewTemplateSolution.SortDescriptions.Clear();
viewTemplateSolution.SortDescriptions.Add(new SortDescription("Name", ListSortDirection.Ascending));
viewTemplateSolution.Filter = obj =>
{
Solution solution = (Solution) obj;
return solution.IsTemplate;
};
WindowMain.tvTemplateSolutions.ItemsSource = viewTemplateSolution;
i use ObservableCollection as my items collection and than in the view model
call CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(my_collection).Refresh();