Traditionally, a property in .NET is a member variable with associated get and set methods that are used to read and write its value.
Ex.Traditional .NET Property
private int mEmployeeRating;
public int EmployeeRating
{
get { return mEmployeeRating; }
set { mEmployeeRating = value; }
}
WPF introduces the concept of a dependency property, which also uses get and set methods to read and write its value, but instead of storing the property value in a member variable, instead stores its value in a dictionary maintained by the property system in WPF. In other words the back store for a traditional property is a member variable and the back store for a dependency property is a dictionary maintained by the property system. This gives the property system the ability to manipulate the value returned by the property.
So why would you want to use a dependency property?
Dependency properties give you additional functionality that traditional properties do not supply. Dependency properties allow you to:
- Set the property value using resources.
- Bind the property to a data source, so that property value gets update dynamically whenever the data source value changes.
- Set the property value …
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