C# How do I create a (two way) databinding to Parent Elements WITHOUT XAML

Question

I'm trying to make a list of my PropertyEntry class (user control), which gets generated for each Property of a Person Class. Sadly most of the guides in the internet only tell you how to create a Binding by XAML files, but I need a solution that can work generically without it. So here's what I already worked on:

public partial class PropertyEntry : UserControl
{
    public PropertyEntry(string propertyName)
    {
        Binding propertyBinding = new Binding(); // <--- How do I setup a  two-way binding to the PersonToEdit property of the ancestor
        InitializeComponent();
        this.PropertyLabel.Content = labelName + ": ";
        this.PropertyInput.SetBinding(); // <--- How do I apply this binding to my Input
    }
}

Here the direct Ancestor:

 public partial class PersonView : Window
{ 
    public Person PersonToEdit { get; set; }
    public PersonView(Person person)
    {
        
        PersonToEdit = person;
        InitializeComponent();
    }
    public void updateUserControlByUniqueClassFields(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        PropertyInfo[] varyingPropeties = findVaryingFields();
        varyingPropeties.ToList().ForEach((property) =>
        {
            PropertyList.Children.Add(new PropertyEntry(property.Name)); //<--- Stackpanel
        });
        
    }
 ... more code
}

I want to Note, that the Person Class already got the IPropertyNotificator implemented, so that I can assign the OnPropertyChanged Event to the UpdateSourceTrigger later on. All I would like to know is how I can assamble a suitable binding by code for this scenario, since I don't know how to access the ancestor to setup the new Binding correctly.

EDIT: I'm working with C# WPF So far I managed to create a Binding, which seems to be bound to the correct instance but is still not showing the properties as TextBox.Text correctly.

public partial class PropertyEntry : UserControl
{
    public PropertyEntry(Person dataSourceToBind, string propertyName)
    {
        Binding propertyBinding = new Binding(); 
        propertyBinding.Source = dataSourceToBind;
        propertyBinding.Path = new PropertyPath(propertyName);
        propertyBinding.Mode = BindingMode.TwoWay;
        propertyBinding.UpdateSourceTrigger = UpdateSourceTrigger.PropertyChanged;
        InitializeComponent();
        this.PropertyLabel.Content = propertyName;
        this.PropertyInput.SetBinding(TextBlock.TextProperty, propertyBinding);
        dataSourceToBind.OnPropertyChanged(propertyName);
    }
}

EDIT2: I found the solution and wanted to share it with you guys. Maybe someone else will have the same struggle and there's not too much code behind out there in the web regarding this problem. So the Line:

this.PropertyInput.SetBinding(TextBlock.TextProperty, propertyBinding);

has to be

BindingOperations.SetBinding(PropertyInput, TextBox.TextProperty, propertyBinding);

instead.

Answer 1

Can you please specify if you are working with WPF, UWP, WinForms? Please note that the solution may be very different depending on which on you are using.

Assuming you are using WPF, this should get you going in the right direction:

propertyBinding.Mode = BindingMode.TwoWay;
// from the MS Example for a TextBlock binding
BindingOperations.SetBinding(myDateText, TextBlock.TextProperty, myNewBindDef);
BindingOperations.SetBinding(myDateText, TextBlock.ForegroundProperty, myNewBindDef);

Please check out these sites to get more information on doing this in code:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/desktop/wpf/data/binding-declarations-overview?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8&viewFallbackFrom=netdesktop-5.0
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/desktop/wpf/data/data-binding-overview?view=netdesktop-5.0