Compiled Bindings considerations

As you’re probably aware, Windows 10 introduced a new type of Bindings called Compiled Bindings.

And as the name might suggest, compiled bindings are a way the compiler uses to generate static code for a binding instead of using a reflection based solution, as regular bindings do.

The main advantage is quite obvious: there will be a performance gain for using static compiled code instead of using reflection!

Let’s take a look at a simple regular binding example:

<TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" />

This binding will set the TextBlock.Text property to the value of the Name and will update it every time the Name property changes (assuming that the data context implements and raises the necessary INotifyPropertyChanged.PropertyChanged event)

To take advantage of the compiled bindings, one would rewrite it like this:

<TextBlock Text="{x:Bind Name, Mode=OneWay}" />

Notice that I added the Mode=OneWay on the expression above?

Well, that is actually required due to a fundamental difference between regular bindings and compiled bindings: while the regular bindings default mode is OneWay, compiled bindings default mode is OneTime!

This is a really important piece of information that I’ve seen a lot of developers not taking notice, so make sure to fix those binding expressions correctly when you migrate to compiled bindings!

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