Question

ObservableCollections raise notifications for each action performed on them. Firstly they dont have bulk add or remove calls, secondly they are not thread safe.

Doesn’t this make them slower? Cant we have a faster alternative? Some say ICollectionView wrapped around an ObservableCollection is fast? How true is this claim.

Answer 1

ObservableCollection can be fast, if it wants to. 🙂

The code below is a very good example of a thread safe, faster observable collection and you can extend it further to your wish.

using System.Collections.Specialized;

public class FastObservableCollection<T> : ObservableCollection<T>
{
    private readonly object locker = new object();

    /// <summary>
    /// This private variable holds the flag to
    /// turn on and off the collection changed notification.
    /// </summary>
    private bool suspendCollectionChangeNotification;

    /// <summary>
    /// Initializes a new instance of the FastObservableCollection class.
    /// </summary>
    public FastObservableCollection()
        : base()
    {
        this.suspendCollectionChangeNotification = false;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// This event is overriden CollectionChanged event of the observable collection.
    /// </summary>
    public override event NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler CollectionChanged;

    /// <summary>
    /// This method adds the given generic list of items
    /// as a range into current collection by casting them as type T.
    /// It then notifies once after all items are added.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="items">The source collection.</param>
    public void AddItems(IList<T> items)
    {
       lock(locker)
       {
          this.SuspendCollectionChangeNotification();
          foreach (var i in items)
          {
             InsertItem(Count, i);
          }
          this.NotifyChanges();
       }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Raises collection change event.
    /// </summary>
    public void NotifyChanges()
    {
        this.ResumeCollectionChangeNotification();
        var arg
             = new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs
                  (NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Reset);
        this.OnCollectionChanged(arg);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// This method removes the given generic list of items as a range
    /// into current collection by casting them as type T.
    /// It then notifies once after all items are removed.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="items">The source collection.</param>
    public void RemoveItems(IList<T> items)
    {
        lock(locker)
        {
           this.SuspendCollectionChangeNotification();
           foreach (var i in items)
           {
             Remove(i);
           }
           this.NotifyChanges();
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Resumes collection changed notification.
    /// </summary>
    public void ResumeCollectionChangeNotification()
    {
        this.suspendCollectionChangeNotification = false;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Suspends collection changed notification.
    /// </summary>
    public void SuspendCollectionChangeNotification()
    {
        this.suspendCollectionChangeNotification = true;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// This collection changed event performs thread safe event raising.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="e">The event argument.</param>
    protected override void OnCollectionChanged(NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        // Recommended is to avoid reentry 
        // in collection changed event while collection
        // is getting changed on other thread.
        using (BlockReentrancy())
        {
            if (!this.suspendCollectionChangeNotification)
            {
                NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler eventHandler = 
                      this.CollectionChanged;
                if (eventHandler == null)
                {
                    return;
                }

                // Walk thru invocation list.
                Delegate[] delegates = eventHandler.GetInvocationList();

                foreach
                (NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler handler in delegates)
                {
                    // If the subscriber is a DispatcherObject and different thread.
                    DispatcherObject dispatcherObject
                         = handler.Target as DispatcherObject;

                    if (dispatcherObject != null
                           && !dispatcherObject.CheckAccess())
                    {
                        // Invoke handler in the target dispatcher's thread... 
                        // asynchronously for better responsiveness.
                        dispatcherObject.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke
                              (DispatcherPriority.DataBind, handler, this, e);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        // Execute handler as is.
                        handler(this, e);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Also ICollectionView that sits above the ObservableCollection is actively aware of the changes and performs filtering, grouping, sorting relatively fast as compared to any other source list.

Again observable collections may not be a perfect answer for faster data updates but they do their job pretty well.