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csharp_delegates

C# delegates are reference type variables that hold references to methods, allowing for dynamic method invocation at runtime. They are primarily used for implementing events and callback methods, and can be instantiated and composed to create invocation lists. The document provides examples of declaring, instantiating, and using delegates, including multicasting and practical applications such as printing to the console and a file.

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Francisco Javier Benito Santiago
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3 views

csharp_delegates

C# delegates are reference type variables that hold references to methods, allowing for dynamic method invocation at runtime. They are primarily used for implementing events and callback methods, and can be instantiated and composed to create invocation lists. The document provides examples of declaring, instantiating, and using delegates, including multicasting and practical applications such as printing to the console and a file.

Uploaded by

Francisco Javier Benito Santiago
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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C# - DELEGATES

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/csharp/csharp_delegates.htm Copyright © tutorialspoint.com

C# delegates are similar to pointers to functions, in C or C++. A delegate is a reference type variable that holds the
reference to a method. The reference can be changed at runtime.

Delegates are especially used for implementing events and the call-back methods. All delegates are implicitly derived
from the System.Delegate class.

Declaring Delegates

Delegate declaration determines the methods that can be referenced by the delegate. A delegate can refer to a method,
which have the same signature as that of the delegate.

For example, consider a delegate:

public delegate int MyDelegate (string s);

The preceding delegate can be used to reference any method that has a single string parameter and returns an int type
variable.

Syntax for delegate declaration is:

delegate <return type> <delegate-name> <parameter list>

Instantiating Delegates

Once a delegate type has been declared, a delegate object must be created with the new keyword and be associated with
a particular method. When creating a delegate, the argument passed to the new expression is written like a method call,
but without the arguments to the method. For example:

public delegate void printString(string s);


...
printString ps1 = new printString(WriteToScreen);
printString ps2 = new printString(WriteToFile);

Following example demonstrates declaration, instantiation and use of a delegate that can be used to reference methods
that take an integer parameter and returns an integer value.

using System;

delegate int NumberChanger(int n);


namespace DelegateAppl
{
class TestDelegate
{
static int num = 10;
public static int AddNum(int p)
{
num += p;
return num;
}

public static int MultNum(int q)


{
num *= q;
return num;
}
public static int getNum()
{
return num;
}

static void Main(string[] args)


{
//create delegate instances
NumberChanger nc1 = new NumberChanger(AddNum);
NumberChanger nc2 = new NumberChanger(MultNum);
//calling the methods using the delegate objects
nc1(25);
Console.WriteLine("Value of Num: {0}", getNum());
nc2(5);
Console.WriteLine("Value of Num: {0}", getNum());
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces following result:

Value of Num: 35
Value of Num: 175

Multicasting of a Delegate

Delegate objects can be composed using the "+" operator. A composed delegate calls the two delegates it was composed
from. Only delegates of the same type can be composed. The "-" operator can be used to remove a component delegate
from a composed delegate.

Using this useful property of delegates you can create an invocation list of methods that will be called when a delegate is
invoked. This is called multicasting of a delegate. The following program demonstrates multicasting of a delegate:

using System;

delegate int NumberChanger(int n);


namespace DelegateAppl
{
class TestDelegate
{
static int num = 10;
public static int AddNum(int p)
{
num += p;
return num;
}

public static int MultNum(int q)


{
num *= q;
return num;
}
public static int getNum()
{
return num;
}

static void Main(string[] args)


{
//create delegate instances
NumberChanger nc;
NumberChanger nc1 = new NumberChanger(AddNum);
NumberChanger nc2 = new NumberChanger(MultNum);
nc = nc1;
nc += nc2;
//calling multicast
nc(5);
Console.WriteLine("Value of Num: {0}", getNum());
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces following result:

Value of Num: 75

Use of Delegate

The following example demonstrates the use of delegate. The delegate printString can be used to reference methods that
take a string as input and return nothing.

We use this delegate to call two methods, the first prints the string to the console, and the second one prints it to a file:

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace DelegateAppl
{
class PrintString
{
static FileStream fs;
static StreamWriter sw;
// delegate declaration
public delegate void printString(string s);

// this method prints to the console


public static void WriteToScreen(string str)
{
Console.WriteLine("The String is: {0}", str);
}
//this method prints to a file
public static void WriteToFile(string s)
{
fs = new FileStream("c:\\message.txt",
FileMode.Append, FileAccess.Write);
sw = new StreamWriter(fs);
sw.WriteLine(s);
sw.Flush();
sw.Close();
fs.Close();
}
// this method takes the delegate as parameter and uses it to
// call the methods as required
public static void sendString(printString ps)
{
ps("Hello World");
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
printString ps1 = new printString(WriteToScreen);
printString ps2 = new printString(WriteToFile);
sendString(ps1);
sendString(ps2);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces following result:

The String is: Hello World

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