Data Bind to Dynamic Object with CLR and Dynamic Properties

Updated on Sep 23, 2026

This article describes how to implement DynamicObject with dynamic (DLR) and static (CLR) fields, and data bind it to RadGridView.

The following model shows a class that derives from DynamicObject and containing one CLR property called Id. When the RadGridView auto-generates its columns, the TryGetMember method of the DynamicObject class will be used to fetch the values for each column. This said, you will need to implement some logic in the method in order to allow RadGridView to work with the data - both CLR (Common Language Runtime) and DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime).

Example 1: DynamicObject implementation

C#

public class RowInfo : DynamicObject, INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    private int id;
    private readonly IDictionary<string, object> data = new Dictionary<string, object>();

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    // CLR property
    public int Id
    {
        get { return id; }
        set { id = value; OnPropertyChanged("Id"); }
    }

    public override IEnumerable<string> GetDynamicMemberNames()
    {
        return data.Keys;
    }

    public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result)
    {
        if (binder.Name == nameof(this.Id))
        {
            result = this.Id;
        }
        else
        {
            result = this[binder.Name];
        }

        return true;
    }

    public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value)
    {
        this[binder.Name] = value;
        return true;
    }

    public object this[string columnName]
    {
        get
        {
            if (data.ContainsKey(columnName))
            {
                return data[columnName];
            }
            return null;
        }
        set
        {
            if (!data.ContainsKey(columnName))
            {
                data.Add(columnName, value);
                OnPropertyChanged(columnName);
            }
            else
            {
                if (data[columnName] != value)
                {
                    data[columnName] = value;
                    OnPropertyChanged(columnName);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
    {
        if (PropertyChanged != null)
        {
            PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Public Class RowInfo
	Inherits DynamicObject
	Implements INotifyPropertyChanged

	Private id As Integer
	Private ReadOnly data As IDictionary(Of String, Object) = New Dictionary(Of String, Object)()
	Public Event PropertyChanged As PropertyChangedEventHandler
			
	Public Property Id As Integer
		Get
			Return id
		End Get
		Set(ByVal value As Integer)
			id = value
			OnPropertyChanged("Id")
		End Set
	End Property

	Public Overrides Function GetDynamicMemberNames() As IEnumerable(Of String)
		Return data.Keys
	End Function

	Public Overrides Function TryGetMember(ByVal binder As GetMemberBinder, <Out> ByRef result As Object) As Boolean
		If binder.Name = NameOf(Me.Id) Then
			result = Me.Id
		Else
			result = Me(binder.Name)
		End If

		Return True
	End Function

	Public Overrides Function TrySetMember(ByVal binder As SetMemberBinder, ByVal value As Object) As Boolean
		Me(binder.Name) = value
		Return True
	End Function

	Default Public Property Item(ByVal columnName As String) As Object
		Get

			If data.ContainsKey(columnName) Then
				Return data(columnName)
			End If

			Return Nothing
		End Get
		Set(ByVal value As Object)

			If Not data.ContainsKey(columnName) Then
				data.Add(columnName, value)
				OnPropertyChanged(columnName)
			Else

				If data(columnName) <> value Then
					data(columnName) = value
					OnPropertyChanged(columnName)
				End If
			End If
		End Set
	End Property

	Private Sub OnPropertyChanged(ByVal propertyName As String)
		RaiseEvent PropertyChanged(Me, New PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName))
	End Sub
End Class

Example 2: Populating with data

C#

public MyUserControl()
{
    InitializeComponent();

    var data = new ObservableCollection<RowInfo>();
    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
    {
        var row = new RowInfo() { Id = i };
        for (int j = 0; j < 5; j++)
        {
            row[string.Format("Column{0}", j)] = string.Format("Cell {0} {1}", i, j);
        }

        data.Add(row);
    }

    this.DataContext = data;
}

VB.NET

Public Sub New()
	InitializeComponent()
	Dim data = New ObservableCollection(Of RowInfo)()

	For i As Integer = 0 To 100 - 1
		Dim row = New RowInfo() With {
			.Id = i
		}

		For j As Integer = 0 To 5 - 1
			row(String.Format("Column{0}", j)) = String.Format("Cell {0} {1}", i, j)
		Next

		data.Add(row)
	Next

	Me.DataContext = data
End Sub

Example 3: RadGridView definition

XAML

<telerik:RadGridView ItemsSource="{Binding}" />

Another code example with dynamic data can be found in the Various Data Sources demo.