RxList

RxList is a concept used in reactive programming to describe a list data structure that publishes change notifications as part of an observable stream. It wraps a standard collection and emits events whenever its contents are mutated, enabling reactive pipelines to respond in real time.

Core features typically include support for common list operations such as add, insert, remove, clear, and replace, with each mutation generating one or more observable notifications. These notifications may convey what changed (items added or removed), where it occurred (index or range), and sometimes a new snapshot of the affected portion of the list. Some implementations also provide granular updates, such as item-level changes, or batch-change events for efficiency.

RxList integrates with the observer pattern and reactive extensions libraries, fitting into systems that use streams to model data flows. It is commonly used for user interface data binding, live dashboards, collaborative or multi-user applications, and any scenario that benefits from automatic propagation of list changes to dependent components or services.

Design considerations for RxList include thread safety and synchronization, since mutations may occur on different threads, and the overhead of emitting notifications versus batch updates. Some variants provide immutable or copy-on-write options to simplify reasoning about state, while others optimize for low-latency updates. When selecting an RxList variant, developers consider the required granularity of updates, compatibility with the chosen reactive framework, and the performance characteristics of their specific application.

See also: reactive programming, observable collections, IObservable, reactive streams.