What is the use of ObservableCollection in .net?

Question

What is the use of ObservableCollection in .net?

Answer 1

ObservableCollection is a collection that allows code outside the collection be aware of when changes to the collection (add, move, remove) occur. It is used heavily in WPF and Silverlight but its use is not limited to there. Code can add event handlers to see when the collection has changed and then react through the event handler to do some additional processing. This may be changing a UI or performing some other operation.

The code below doesn't really do anything but demonstrates how you'd attach a handler in a class and then use the event args to react in some way to the changes. WPF already has many operations like refreshing the UI built in so you get them for free when using ObservableCollections

class Handler
{
    private ObservableCollection<string> collection;

    public Handler()
    {
        collection = new ObservableCollection<string>();
        collection.CollectionChanged += HandleChange;
    }

    private void HandleChange(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        foreach (var x in e.NewItems)
        {
            // do something
        }

        foreach (var y in e.OldItems)
        {
            //do something
        }
        if (e.Action == NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Move)
        {
            //do something
        }
    }
}