c# - Thread safety, lists, binding and WPF

Question

I have a WPF ListView that is bound to a collection (List<T>). It is currently updated from the current thread which works ok.

I want to move the logic for updating the list into a thread and I see some potential issues regarding thread safety and the binding of the list. Can I be assured that the binding will not be updated unless I call NotifyPropertyChanged? Is NotifyPropertyChanged a blocking call or does it just add it to a message queue; in this instance surely there may be a condition where I tell the ListView the collection updated, but by the time the binding updates I may be modifying the collection in the other thread which will throw an exception or crash the program.

What is the best method for implementing thread safety in such a scenario?

Answer 1

You can make the collection update from Dispatcher.Invoke to avoid those threading problems:

void ThreadProc()
{
   window.Dispatcher.Invoke(() => {
      //UpdateList
   });
}