ObservableCollections

ObservableCollections is a high performance observable collections(ObservableList<T>, ObservableDictionary<TKey, TValue>, ObservableHashSet<T>, ObservableQueue<T>, ObservableStack<T>, ObservableRingBuffer<T>, ObservableFixedSizeRingBuffer<T>) with synchronized views.

.NET has ObservableCollection<T>, however it has many lacks of features.

It based INotifyCollectionChanged, NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler and NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs. There are no generics so everything boxed, allocate memory every time. Also NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs holds all values to IList even if it is single value, this also causes allocations. ObservableCollection<T> has no Range feature so a lot of wastage occurs when adding multiple values, because it is a single value notification. Also, it is not thread-safe is hard to do linkage with the notifier.

ObservableCollections introduces generics version of NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler and NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs, it using latest C# features(in, readonly ref struct, ReadOnlySpan<T>).

public delegate void NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler<T>(in NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs<T> e);

public readonly ref struct NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs<T>
{
    public readonly NotifyCollectionChangedAction Action;
    public readonly bool IsSingleItem;
    public readonly T NewItem;
    public readonly T OldItem;
    public readonly ReadOnlySpan<T> NewItems;
    public readonly ReadOnlySpan<T> OldItems;
    public readonly int NewStartingIndex;
    public readonly int OldStartingIndex;
}

Also, use the interface IObservableCollection<T> instead of INotifyCollectionChanged. This is guaranteed to be thread-safe and can produce a View that is fully synchronized with the collection.

public interface IObservableCollection<T> : IReadOnlyCollection<T>
{
    event NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler<T> CollectionChanged;
    object SyncRoot { get; }
    ISynchronizedView<T, TView> CreateView<TView>(Func<T, TView> transform, bool reverse = false);
}

// also exists SortedView
public static ISynchronizedView<T, TView> CreateSortedView<T, TKey, TView>(this IObservableCollection<T> source, Func<T, TKey> identitySelector, Func<T, TView> transform, IComparer<T> comparer);
public static ISynchronizedView<T, TView> CreateSortedView<T, TKey, TView>(this IObservableCollection<T> source, Func<T, TKey> identitySelector, Func<T, TView> transform, IComparer<TView> viewComparer);

SynchronizedView helps to separate between Model and View (ViewModel). We will use ObservableCollections as the Model and generate SynchronizedView as the View (ViewModel). This architecture can be applied not only to WPF, but also to Blazor, Unity, etc.

ObservableCollections has not just a simple list, there are many more data structures. ObservableList<T>, ObservableDictionary<TKey, TValue>, ObservableHashSet<T>, ObservableQueue<T>, ObservableStack<T>, ObservableRingBuffer<T>, ObservableFixedSizeRingBuffer<T>. RingBuffer, especially FixedSizeRingBuffer, can be achieved with efficient performance when there is rotation (e.g., displaying up to 1000 logs, where old ones are deleted when new ones are added). Of course, the AddRange allows for efficient batch processing of large numbers of additions.

Getting Started

For .NET, use NuGet. For Unity, please read Unity section.

PM> Install-Package ObservableCollections

create new ObservableList<T>, ObservableDictionary<TKey, TValue>, ObservableHashSet<T>, ObservableQueue<T>, ObservableStack<T>, ObservableRingBuffer<T>, ObservableFixedSizeRingBuffer<T>.

// Blazor simple sample.
public partial class Index : IDisposable
{
    ObservableList<int> list;
    public ISynchronizedView<int, int> ItemsView { get; set; }

    protected override void OnInitialized()
    {
        list = new ObservableList<int>();
        ItemsView = list.CreateView(x => x);

        ItemsView.CollectionStateChanged += action =>
        {
            InvokeAsync(StateHasChanged);
        };
    }

    public void Dispose()
    {
        ItemsView.Dispose();
    }
}

// WPF simple sample.

ObservableList<int> list;
public ISynchronizedView<int, int> ItemsView { get; set; }

public MainWindow()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    this.DataContext = this;

    list = new ObservableList<int>();
    ItemsView = list.CreateSortedView(x => x, x => x, comparer: Comparer<int>.Default).WithINotifyCollectionChanged();

    BindingOperations.EnableCollectionSynchronization(ItemsView, new object()); // for ui synchronization safety of viewmodel
}

protected override void OnClosed(EventArgs e)
{
    ItemsView.Dispose();
}

// Unity, with filter sample.

public class SampleScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    public Button prefab;
    public GameObject root;
    ObservableRingBuffer<int> collection;
    ISynchronizedView<GameObject> view;

    void Start()
    {
        collection = new ObservableRingBuffer<int>();
        view = collection.CreateView(x =>
        {
            var item = GameObject.Instantiate(prefab);
            item.GetComponentInChildren<Text>().text = x.ToString();
            return item.gameObject;
        });
        view.AttachFilter(new GameObjectFilter(root));
    }

    void OnDestroy()
    {
        view.Dispose();
    }

    public class GameObjectFilter : ISynchronizedViewFilter<int, GameObject>
    {
        readonly GameObject root;

        public GameObjectFilter(GameObject root)
        {
            this.root = root;
        }

        public void OnCollectionChanged(ChangedKind changedKind, int value, GameObject view)
        {
            if (changedKind == ChangedKind.Add)
            {
                view.transform.SetParent(root.transform);
            }
            else if (changedKind == ChangedKind.Remove)
            {
                GameObject.Destroy(view);
            }
        }

        public bool IsMatch(int value, GameObject view)
        {
            return value % 2 == 0;
        }

        public void WhenTrue(int value, GameObject view)
        {
            view.SetActive(true);
        }

        public void WhenFalse(int value, GameObject view)
        {
            view.SetActive(false);
        }
    }
}

manju-summoner/ObservableCollections

ObservableCollections

Getting Started

View/SoretedView

Filter

Collections

Freezed

Unity

License