Why isn't my datagrid updating?

Question

I have an object that has as one of its properties, a List. I want to bind a datagrid to that list, such that when I add objects to the grid, the datagrid updates. I tried:

myDataGrid.DataSource = myObject.MyList;

but when I update the datasource with new rows, the grid doesn't update.

Then I tried:

myDataGrid.DataSource = null;
myDataGrid.DataSource = myObject.MyList;

Calling the above code every time I added an item. This resulted in an error when clicking on the grid (specifically, index -1 has no data, something to do with the datagridview.get_current internally. Happens despite the fact that I'm not clicking the -1st row).

So then I tried:

myDataGrid.DataBindings.Add(new Binding("DataSoruce",myObject,"MyList",false,DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged));

That didn't reflect the updates either, so I added:

myDataGrid.DataBindings[0].ReadValue();

whenever I added an item, but it has no effect either. I feel like I'm circling around a simpler solution to this problem, but I can't seem to find it. Any pro tips?

Answer 1

If I changed my type from List to BindingList, all the problems go away and the grid autoupdates as expected.

Answer 2

You seem to already know this, but you want to use a BindingList if at all possible here. Any hamfisted attempt to make a List function like a BindingList is just going to be a lot more pain than simply copying the elements from a List you already have to a BindingList.