using of INotifyPropertyChanged

Question

Can someone explain me why need to use implementation of INotifyPropertyChanged when using binding in wpf? I can bind properties without implementation of this interface? For example i have code

public class StudentData : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    #region INotifyPropertyChanged Members

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
    #endregion

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

    string _firstName = null;
    public string StudentFirstName
    {
        get
        {
            return _firstName;
        }
        set
        {
            _firstName = value;

            OnPropertyChanged("StudentFirstName");
        }
    }
}

And binding in .xaml

<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=StudentFirstName, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"
   Grid.Row="1"
   Grid.Column="2"
   VerticalAlignment="Center" />

this code from .xaml.cs

StudentData _studentData = new StudentData { StudentFirstName = "John", StudentGradePointAverage = 3.5};

public MainWindow()
{
    InitializeComponent();

    this.DataContext = _studentData;
}

why we need to use INotifyPropertyChanged in this case? It is not my code.

I sugest to you see some examples about Fody and MVVMLight with WPF, maybe can be very helpful to you XD. — Joel R Michaliszen, Nov 10 '15 at 23:00
Remove INotifyPropertyChanged and try to change the name of student on button click. — D J, Nov 10 '15 at 23:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

You need INotifyPropertyChanged if you want a wpf form to be automatically updated when a property changes through code. Also some controllers might want to know if edits have been made in order to enable/disable a save-button, for instance. You also might be displaying the same property on different views; in this case INotifyPropertyChanged helps to immediately update the other view when you edit a property.

If you think that your form behaves well without INotifyPropertyChanged, then you can drop it.

Note that binding works even without INotifyPropertyChanged. See: Why does the binding update without implementing INotifyPropertyChanged?

I would implement the properties like this. In some rare cases it can help to avoid endless circular updates. And it is more efficient by the way.

 private string _firstName;
 public string StudentFirstName
 {
     get { return _firstName; }
     set
     {
         if (value != _firstName) {
             _firstName = value;
             OnPropertyChanged("StudentFirstName");
         }
     }
 }

Starting with C#6.0 (VS 2015), you can implement OnPropertyChanged like this:

private void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
    PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}

OnPropertyChanged(...) raise event that my property was changed right? — , Nov 10 '15 at 23:09

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 10 '15 at 23:07

When you bind to a property of StudentData such as the StudentFirstName then the binding class tests to see if the StudentData instance provides the INotifyPropertyChanged interface. If so then it will hook into the PropertyChanged event. When the event fires and it fires because of the StudentFirstName property then it knows it needs to recover the source value again because it has changed. This is how the binding is able to monitor changes in the source and reflect them in the user interface.

If you do not provide the INotifyPropertyChanged interface then the binding has no idea when the source value changes. In which case the user interface will not update when the property is changed. You will only see the initial value that was defined when the binding was first used.

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

It does need to be implemented in order for binding to work but that doesn't mean you always have to do it yourself. There are other options like Castle Dynamic Proxy (which wraps your classes in a proxy and injects INPC into all virtual properties) and Fody (which adds it to the IL in a post-processing step). It's also possible to implement yourself while at the same time reducing code bloat, as demonstrated in my answer to this question.

using of INotifyPropertyChanged

3 Answers3

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