.NET ObservableDictionary

Question

I have written the following class which implements(or tries to!) a dictionary with notifications:

public partial class ObservableDictionary<TKey, TValue> : Dictionary<TKey, TValue>, INotifyCollectionChanged
{
    public ObservableDictionary() : base() { }
    public ObservableDictionary(int capacity) : base(capacity) { }
    public ObservableDictionary(IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer) : base(comparer) { }
    public ObservableDictionary(IDictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary) : base(dictionary) { }
    public ObservableDictionary(int capacity, IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer) : base(capacity, comparer) { }
    public ObservableDictionary(IDictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary, IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer) : base(dictionary, comparer) { }

    public event NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler CollectionChanged;

    public new TValue this[TKey key]
    {
        get
        {
            return base[key];
        }
        set
        {
            OnCollectionChanged(new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Replace, key, 0));
            base[key] = value;
        }
    }

    public new void Add(TKey key, TValue value)
    {
        base.Add(key, value);
        OnCollectionChanged(new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add, key, 0));
    }

    public new bool Remove(TKey key)
    {
        bool x = base.Remove(key);
        OnCollectionChanged(new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Remove, key, 0));
        return x;
    }

    public new void Clear()
    {
        base.Clear();
        OnCollectionChanged(new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Reset));
    }


    protected virtual void OnCollectionChanged(NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (CollectionChanged != null)
        {
            CollectionChanged(this, e);
        }
    }
}

In another class, I have a listener for the MyObservableDictionary.CollectionChanged event:

The problem I'm having is that the event doesn't fire. How can I fix this?

Answer 1

I'd suggest that you implement the IDictionary<TKey, TValue> instead of inheriting from Dictionary<TKey, TValue>. Since you have to use new rather than override it's possible that the methods are simply being called on the base class rather than your class. I'd be tempted to use a Dictionary<TKey, TValue> internally to do the actual storing of data.

In fact I found this: http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/shimmy/archive/2010/12/26/observabledictionary-lt-tkey-tvalue-gt-c.aspx