Binding property to control in Winforms

Question

What is the best way to bind a property to a control so that when the property value is changed, the control's bound property changes with it.

So if I have a property FirstName which I want to bind to a textbox's txtFirstName text value. So if I change FirstName to value "Stack" then the property txtFirstName.Text also changes to value "Stack".

I know this may sound a stupid question but I'll appreciate the help.

Answer 1

A simplified version of the accepted answer that does NOT require you to type names of properties manually in every property setter like OnPropertyChanged("some-property-name"). Instead you just call OnPropertyChanged() without parameters:

You need .NET 4.5 minimum. CallerMemberName is in the System.Runtime.CompilerServices namespace

public class Sample : INotifyPropertyChanged {     private string _propString;     private int _propInt;       //======================================     // Actual implementation     //======================================     public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;      [NotifyPropertyChangedInvocator]     protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged([CallerMemberName] string propertyName = null)     {         var handler = PropertyChanged;         if (handler != null) handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));     }     //======================================     // END: actual implementation     //======================================       public string PropString     {         get { return _propString; }         set         {             // do not trigger change event if values are the same             if (Equals(value, _propString)) return;             _propString = value;              //===================             // Usage in the Source             //===================             OnPropertyChanged();          }     }      public int PropInt     {         get { return _propInt; }         set         {             // do not allow negative numbers, but always trigger a change event             _propInt = value < 0 ? 0 : value;             OnPropertyChanged();         }     } } 

Usage stays the same:

var source = new Sample(); textbox.DataBindings.Add("Text", source, "PropString"); source.PropString = "Some new string"; 

Hope this helps someone.

Answer 2

You must implement INotifyPropertyChanged And add binding to textbox.

I will provide C# code snippet. Hope it helps

class Sample : INotifyPropertyChanged {     private string firstName;     public string FirstName     {         get { return firstName; }         set         {             firstName = value;             InvokePropertyChanged(new PropertyChangedEventArgs("FirstName"));         }     }      #region Implementation of INotifyPropertyChanged      public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;      public void InvokePropertyChanged(PropertyChangedEventArgs e)     {         PropertyChangedEventHandler handler = PropertyChanged;         if (handler != null) handler(this, e);     }      #endregion } 

Usage :

 Sample sourceObject = new Sample();  textbox.DataBindings.Add("Text",sourceObject,"FirstName");  sourceObject.FirstName = "Stack";