I did have a bit of trouble for bit there as I had bound my source to Dictionary.Values, but after reading through the comments I was able to bind the source directly to the Dictionary as suggested and then change my data context to ‘Value’ in the XAML and it worked like a charm.

One stumbling block I ran in to was that the ObservableSortedDictionary constructor requires an explicit IComparer object whereas the base SortedDictionary does not. Your observable version would have been a lot easier to drop in if it also used a default comparer when none is supplied.

Cheers,
Brian

_dictionaryCacheVersion = -1;

Something like:

private void Control_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// MyDataItem would contain a reference to a data source and key
// the tag is assigned to be MyDataItem created using a IMultiConverter defined in the xaml

MyDataItem dataItem = ((sender as FrameworkElement).Tag as MyDataItem);

Binding b = new Binding(”["+dataItem.Key+"]“);
b.Source = dataItem.DataSourceWithIndexer;

if (sender is TextBox)
{
(sender as TextBox).SetBinding(TextBox.TextProperty, b);
}
}

This works, but was hoping to do this within the XAML.

Also, is it correct to set Binding in the Load event?

Thanks again
Sam

e.g. Path=’.[{Binding indexerKey}]‘

Thanks,
Sam

Does anybody know or can tell me a way of binding to a dictionary using a dynamic key.

e.g. Path = “.[]”

I’ve used your (Dr WPF) ObjectReference class in combination with the controls tag property to hold the key info, I’ve also tried MultiBinding.

The problem i have is converting back, unless the path can be set dynamically (which is difficult not being a dp) I have to update the data source (indexer) from within the converter which is obviously wrong and bypasses validation.

Has anyone got any ideas?

TIA
Sam

At the very least, first use a linear search. If ya really need to search faster, then go for a dictionary or some other indexing system.

Another approach is to really just keep things in a dictonary, and only fill your UX with “pages” of items form the dictionary. That’s the whole point of some of the virtualized controls.

My two cents, I hope it helps someone think about the problem differently.

http://weblogs.asp.net/pwelter34/archive/2006/05/03/444961.aspx