Best way to notify property change when field is depending on another

Question

What is the best way in c# to notify property changed on an item\'s field without set but get depends on other fields ?

For example :

Answer 1

One way is to just call OnPropertyChanged multiple times:

public MyClass Item
{
    get
    {
        return _item;
    }
    protected set
    {
        _item = value;
        OnPropertyChanged("Item");
        OnPropertyChanged("Field");
    }
}

This isn't very maintainable, however. Another option is to add a setter to your get-only property and set it from the other property:

public MyClass Item
{
    get
    {
        return _item;
    }
    protected set
    {
        _item = value;
        OnPropertyChanged("Item");
        Field = _item.Field;
    }
}

public object Field
{
    get
    {
        return _field;
    }
    private set
    {
        _field = value;
        OnPropertyChanged("Field");
    }
}

There is no built-in mechanism for using attributes to indicate this relationship between properties, however it would be possible to create a helper class that could do it for you.

I've made a really basic example of what that might look like here:

[AttributeUsage( AttributeTargets.Property )]
public class DepondsOnAttribute : Attribute
{
    public DepondsOnAttribute( string name )
    {
        Name = name;
    }

    public string Name { get; }
}

public class PropertyChangedNotifier : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    public PropertyChangedNotifier( T owner )
    {
        mOwner = owner;
    }

    public void OnPropertyChanged( string propertyName )
    {
        var handler = PropertyChanged;
        if( handler != null ) handler( mOwner, new PropertyChangedEventArgs( propertyName ) );

        List dependents;
        if( smPropertyDependencies.TryGetValue( propertyName, out dependents ) )
        {
            foreach( var dependent in dependents ) OnPropertyChanged( dependent );
        }
    }

    static PropertyChangedNotifier()
    {
        foreach( var property in typeof( T ).GetProperties() )
        {
            var dependsOn = property.GetCustomAttributes( true )
                                    .OfType()
                                    .Select( attribute => attribute.Name );

            foreach( var dependency in dependsOn )
            {
                List list;
                if( !smPropertyDependencies.TryGetValue( dependency, out list ) )
                {
                    list = new List();
                    smPropertyDependencies.Add( dependency, list );
                }

                if (property.Name == dependency)
                    throw new ApplicationException(String.Format("Property {0} of {1} cannot depends of itself", dependency, typeof(T).ToString()));

                list.Add( property.Name );
            }
        }
    }

    private static readonly Dictionary> smPropertyDependencies = new Dictionary>();

    private readonly T mOwner;
}

This isn't terribly robust (for example you could create a circular dependency between properties and the property changed would get stuck in an infinite recursion situation). It can also be made simpler using some .NET 4.5 and C#6 features, but I'll leave all that as an exercise for the reader. It probably also doesn't handle inheritance very well.

To use this class:

public class Example : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    private MyClass _item;
    private PropertyChangedNotifier _notifier;

    public Example()
    {
        _notifier = new PropertyChangedNotifier( this );
    }

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged
    {
        add { _notifier.PropertyChanged += value; }
        remove { _notifier.PropertyChanged -= value; }
    }

    public MyClass Item
    {
        get
        {
            return _item;
        }
        protected set
        {
            _item = value;
            OnPropertyChanged("Item");
        }
    }

    [DependsOn( "Item" )]
    public object Field
    {
        get
        {
            return _item.Field;
        }
    }
    protected void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
    {
        _notifier.OnPropertyChanged( propertyName );
    }
}