Can binding to a struct's property cause memory leaks in WPF?

Question

Consider the following struct and class :

public struct DemoStruct
{
    public DemoStruct(int value)
    {
        Value = value;
    }
    
    public int Value {get; }
}


public class DemoClass : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    private DemoStruct _demo;
    public DemoStruct Demo 
    {
        get => _demo;
        set {_demo = value; PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(nameof(Demo)); }
    }

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
}

And, assuming the DataContext is an instance of DemoClass , consider this binding:

<Label Content="{Binding Demo.Value}"/>

By now I've learned that binding to an object that is not a DependencyObject or does not implement INotifyPropertyChanged can cause a memory-leak, see eg Why does implementing INotifyPropertyChanged avoid memory leaks in WPF? .

What I'm wondering is how WPF will handle binding to a struct property.

My DemoStruct does not implement INotifyPropertyChanged , because it is an immutable struct.

I'm assuming it will be boxed by WPF, but will this also create a memory leak, due to the "strong reference" to the boxed struct instance?

And, since a new box will be created whenever WPF accesses the property - will these all leak?

And, a follow up to be on the safe side:

If I were to change the binding to:

<Label Content="{Binding Demo}"/>

Despite the boxing, this should not cause a leak, because WPF does not have to attach any event handlers to "Demo" - right?

Answer 1

Short answer is yes, they can do. Unless you use mode=.netime bindings.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/do.net/api/system.windows.data.bindingmode?view=windowsdesktop-7.0

The struct itself will not cause memory leaks.

Properties on that struct would do.

Demo is a property in a class that implements Inotifypropertychanged. If you bound to Demo then that would not cause a leak but you get a struct. That might not be terribly useful.

If you bind to Demo.Value then that's a property on a struct and that will cause a hard reference to be created. Unless....

Since Demo is to be immutable then maybe in your use case you could try a .netime binding. That doesn't then care about any property changing.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/jgoldb/finding-memory-leaks-in-wpf-based-applications

If you switch out Demo then you could consider a converter to read the data out value. Bind to Demo and use a converter which would then read Value and return that. Might be a bit clunky if you had more than one property.

You could alternatively wrap Demo.Value with another property in your viewmodel. Raise propertychanged on wrapper property when demo changes.