Implementing INotifyPropertyChanged - does a better way exist?

Question

Microsoft should have implemented something snappy for INotifyPropertyChanged, like in the automatic properties, just specify {get; set; notify;} I

Answer 1

I came up with this base class to implement the observable pattern, pretty much does what you need ("automatically" implementing the set and get). I spent line an hour on this as prototype, so it doesn't have many unit tests, but proves the concept. Note it uses the Dictionary to remove the need for private fields.

  public class ObservableByTracking : IObservable
  {
    private readonly Dictionary _expando;
    private bool _isDirty;

    public ObservableByTracking()
    {
      _expando = new Dictionary();

      var properties = this.GetType().GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance).ToList();
      foreach (var property in properties)
      {
        var valueContext = new ObservablePropertyContext(property.Name, property.PropertyType)
        {
          Value = GetDefault(property.PropertyType)
        };

        _expando[BuildKey(valueContext)] = valueContext;
      }
    }

    protected void SetValue(Expression> expression, T value)
    {
      var keyContext = GetKeyContext(expression);
      var key = BuildKey(keyContext.PropertyName, keyContext.PropertyType);

      if (!_expando.ContainsKey(key))
      {
        throw new Exception($"Object doesn't contain {keyContext.PropertyName} property.");
      }

      var originalValue = (T)_expando[key].Value;
      if (EqualityComparer.Default.Equals(originalValue, value))
      {
        return;
      }

      _expando[key].Value = value;
      _isDirty = true;
    }

    protected T GetValue(Expression> expression)
    {
      var keyContext = GetKeyContext(expression);
      var key = BuildKey(keyContext.PropertyName, keyContext.PropertyType);

      if (!_expando.ContainsKey(key))
      {
        throw new Exception($"Object doesn't contain {keyContext.PropertyName} property.");
      }

      var value = _expando[key].Value;
      return (T)value;
    }

    private KeyContext GetKeyContext(Expression> expression)
    {
      var castedExpression = expression.Body as MemberExpression;
      if (castedExpression == null)
      {
        throw new Exception($"Invalid expression.");
      }

      var parameterName = castedExpression.Member.Name;

      var propertyInfo = castedExpression.Member as PropertyInfo;
      if (propertyInfo == null)
      {
        throw new Exception($"Invalid expression.");
      }

      return new KeyContext {PropertyType = propertyInfo.PropertyType, PropertyName = parameterName};
    }

    private static string BuildKey(ObservablePropertyContext observablePropertyContext)
    {
      return $"{observablePropertyContext.Type.Name}.{observablePropertyContext.Name}";
    }

    private static string BuildKey(string parameterName, Type type)
    {
      return $"{type.Name}.{parameterName}";
    }

    private static object GetDefault(Type type)
    {
      if (type.IsValueType)
      {
        return Activator.CreateInstance(type);
      }
      return null;
    }

    public bool IsDirty()
    {
      return _isDirty;
    }

    public void SetPristine()
    {
      _isDirty = false;
    }

    private class KeyContext
    {
      public string PropertyName { get; set; }
      public Type PropertyType { get; set; }
    }
  }

  public interface IObservable
  {
    bool IsDirty();
    void SetPristine();
  }

Here's the usage

public class ObservableByTrackingTestClass : ObservableByTracking
  {
    public ObservableByTrackingTestClass()
    {
      StringList = new List();
      StringIList = new List();
      NestedCollection = new List();
    }

    public IEnumerable StringList
    {
      get { return GetValue(() => StringList); }
      set { SetValue(() => StringIList, value); }
    }

    public IList StringIList
    {
      get { return GetValue(() => StringIList); }
      set { SetValue(() => StringIList, value); }
    }

    public int IntProperty
    {
      get { return GetValue(() => IntProperty); }
      set { SetValue(() => IntProperty, value); }
    }

    public ObservableByTrackingTestClass NestedChild
    {
      get { return GetValue(() => NestedChild); }
      set { SetValue(() => NestedChild, value); }
    }

    public IList NestedCollection
    {
      get { return GetValue(() => NestedCollection); }
      set { SetValue(() => NestedCollection, value); }
    }

    public string StringProperty
    {
      get { return GetValue(() => StringProperty); }
      set { SetValue(() => StringProperty, value); }
    }
  }