How to raise PropertyChanged event without using string name

Question

It would be good to have ability to raise \'PropertyChanged\' event without explicit specifying the name of changed property. I would like to do something like this:

Answer 1

In the following example you have to pass 3 values (backing field, new value, property as lambda) but there are no magic strings and property changed event is only raised when it truly isn't equal.

class Sample : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    private string _name;
    public string Name
    {
        get { return _name; }
        set { this.SetProperty(ref _name, value, () => this.Name); }
    }


    protected void SetProperty<T>(ref T backingField, T newValue, Expression<Func<T>> propertyExpression)
    {
        if (backingField == null && newValue == null)
        {
            return;
        }

        if (backingField == null || !backingField.Equals(newValue))
        {
            backingField = newValue;
            this.OnPropertyChanged(propertyExpression);
        }
    }

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged<T>(Expression<Func<T>> propertyExpression)
    {
        if (PropertyChanged != null)
        {
            PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyExpression.GetPropertyName()));
        }
    }

}

And the following code contains extension methods to get a property name from a lambda expression.

public static class Extensions
{
    public static string GetPropertyName<TProperty>(this Expression<Func<TProperty>> propertyExpression)
    {
        return propertyExpression.Body.GetMemberExpression().GetPropertyName();
    }

    public static string GetPropertyName(this MemberExpression memberExpression)
    {
        if (memberExpression == null)
        {
            return null;
        }

        if (memberExpression.Member.MemberType != MemberTypes.Property)
        {
            return null;
        }

        var child = memberExpression.Member.Name;
        var parent = GetPropertyName(memberExpression.Expression.GetMemberExpression());

        if (parent == null)
        {
            return child;
        }
        else
        {
            return parent + "." + child;
        }
    }

    public static MemberExpression GetMemberExpression(this Expression expression)
    {
        var memberExpression = expression as MemberExpression;

        if (memberExpression != null)
        {
            return memberExpression;
        }

        var unaryExpression = expression as UnaryExpression;


        if (unaryExpression != null)
        {
            memberExpression = (MemberExpression)unaryExpression.Operand;

            if (memberExpression != null)
            {
                return memberExpression;
            }

        }
        return null;
    }

    public static void ShouldEqual<T>(this T actual, T expected, string name)
    {
        if (!Object.Equals(actual, expected))
        {
            throw new Exception(String.Format("{0}: Expected <{1}> Actual <{2}>.", name, expected, actual));
        }
    }

}

Finally some test code:

class q3191536
{
    public static void Test()
    {
        var sample = new Sample();
        var propertyChanged = 0;

        sample.PropertyChanged += 
            new PropertyChangedEventHandler((sender, e) => 
                {
                    if (e.PropertyName == "Name")
                    {
                        propertyChanged += 1;
                    }
                }
            );

        sample.Name = "Budda";

        sample.Name.ShouldEqual("Budda", "sample.Name");
        propertyChanged.ShouldEqual(1, "propertyChanged");

        sample.Name = "Tim";
        sample.Name.ShouldEqual("Tim", sample.Name);
        propertyChanged.ShouldEqual(2, "propertyChanged");

        sample.Name = "Tim";
        sample.Name.ShouldEqual("Tim", sample.Name);
        propertyChanged.ShouldEqual(2, "propertyChanged");
    }
}

Answer 2

I´m using the extension method

public static class ExpressionExtensions {
    public static string PropertyName<TProperty>(this Expression<Func<TProperty>> projection) {
        var memberExpression = (MemberExpression)projection.Body;

        return memberExpression.Member.Name;
    }
}

in combination with the following method. The method is defined in the class that implements the INotifyPropertyChanged interface (Normally a base class from which my other classes are derived).

protected void OnPropertyChanged<TProperty>(Expression<Func<TProperty>> projection) {
    var e = new PropertyChangedEventArgs(projection.PropertyName());

    OnPropertyChanged(e);
}

Then i can raise the PropertyChanged-Event as follows

private double _rate;
public double Rate {
        get {
            return _rate;
        }
        set {
            if (_rate != value) {
              _rate = value;                     
              OnPropertyChanged(() => Rate );
            }
        }
    }

Using this approach, its easy to rename Properties (in Visual Studio), cause it ensures that the corresponding PropertyChanged call is updated too.