How to handle add to list event?

Question

I have a list like this:

List list = new List

How to handle adding new position to this list?

When

Answer 1

To be clear: If you only need to observe the standard-functionalities you should use ObservableCollection(T) or other existing classes. Never rebuild something you already got.

..But.. If you need special events and have to go deeper, you should not derive from List! If you derive from List you can not overloead Add() in order to see every add.

Example:

public class MyList<T> : List<T>
{
    public void Add(T item) // Will show us compiler-warning, because we hide the base-mothod which still is accessible!
    {
        throw new Exception();
    }
}

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    MyList<int> myList = new MyList<int>(); // Create a List which throws exception when calling "Add()"
    List<int> list = myList; // implicit Cast to Base-class, but still the same object

    list.Add(1);              // Will NOT throw the Exception!
    myList.Add(1);            // Will throw the Exception!
}

It's not allowed to override Add(), because you could mees up the functionalities of the base class (Liskov substitution principle).

But as always we need to make it work. But if you want to build your own list, you should to it by implementing the an interface: IList<T>.

Example which implements a before- and after-add event:

public class MyList<T> : IList<T>
{
    private List<T> _list = new List<T>();

    public event EventHandler BeforeAdd;
    public event EventHandler AfterAdd;

    public void Add(T item)
    {
        // Here we can do what ever we want, buffering multiple events etc..
        BeforeAdd?.Invoke(this, null);
        _list.Add(item);
        AfterAdd?.Invoke(this, null);
    }

    #region Forwarding to List<T>
    public T this[int index] { get => _list[index]; set => _list[index] = value; }
    public int Count => _list.Count;
    public bool IsReadOnly => false;
    public void Clear() => _list.Clear();
    public bool Contains(T item) => _list.Contains(item);
    public void CopyTo(T[] array, int arrayIndex) => _list.CopyTo(array, arrayIndex);
    public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator() => _list.GetEnumerator();
    public int IndexOf(T item) => _list.IndexOf(item);
    public void Insert(int index, T item) => _list.Insert(index, item);
    public bool Remove(T item) => _list.Remove(item);
    public void RemoveAt(int index) => _list.RemoveAt(index);
    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() => _list.GetEnumerator();
    #endregion
}

Now we've got all methods we want and didn't have to implement much. The main change in our code is, that our variables will be IList<T> instead of List<T>, ObservableCollection<T> or what ever.

And now the big wow: All of those implement IList<T>:

IList<int> list1 = new ObservableCollection<int>();
IList<int> list2 = new List<int>();
IList<int> list3 = new int[10];
IList<int> list4 = new MyList<int>();

Which brings us to the next point: Use Interfaces instead of classes. Your code should never depend on implementation-details!

Answer 2

I believe What you're looking for is already part of the API in the ObservableCollection(T) class. Example:

ObservableCollection<int> myList = new ObservableCollection<int>();

myList.CollectionChanged += new System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler(
    delegate(object sender, System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)                    
    {
        if (e.Action == System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Added value");
        }
    }
);

myList.Add(1);

Answer 3

What you need is a class that has events for any type of modification that occurs in the collection. The best class for this is BindingList<T>. It has events for every type of mutation which you can then use to modify your event list.

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms132679.aspx

Answer 4

You cannot do this with standard collections out of the box - they just don't support change notifications. You could build your own class by inheriting or aggregating a existing collection type or you could use BindingList<T> that implements IBindingList and supports change notifications via the ListChanged event.