Delegates, Anonymous Method and Lambda Expression

Delegates, anonymous method and lambda expression in c#

  • Delegates in C# are essentially type-safe function pointers.
  • They allow you to treat methods as objects, enabling you to pass methods as parameters, store them in variables, and invoke them dynamically.
  • Delegates are particularly useful for implementing callback mechanisms and event handling in C#.

delegate void MyDelegate(string message);

You can point this delegate to any method with similar signature.

namespace BasicsOfCSharp;

// Declare a delegate type
delegate void MyDelegate(string message);

class Program
{
 // Method that matches the delegate signature
 static void DisplayMessage(string message)
 {
 Console.WriteLine("Message: " + message);
 }
 static void Main()
 {
        // Instantiate the delegate.
        MyDelegate handler = DisplayMessage;

        // calling the handler
        handler("Hello..");

    }

}

👉Multicast Delegate:

You can invoke multiple multiple method with a single handler, it is called multicast delegate.

namespace BasicsOfCSharp;

// Declare a delegate type
delegate void MyDelegate(string message);
class Program
{
// Method that matches the delegate signature
static void DisplayMessage(string message)
{
Console.WriteLine("Message: " + message);
}

    static void Greet (string name)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Hello : " + name);

    }
    static void Main()
    {
        // Instantiate the delegate.
        MyDelegate handler = DisplayMessage;
        handler += Greet;

        // calling the handler
        handler("John");

        // output
        // Message: John
        // Hello : John

    }

}

👉Removing a method from delegate:

static void Main()
{
// Instantiate the delegate.
MyDelegate handler = DisplayMessage;
handler += Greet;

     // calling the handler
     handler("John");

     Console.WriteLine("Removing a method");
     handler -= DisplayMessage;
     handler("John Doe");

     /*
       Message: John
       Hello : John
       Removing a method
       Hello : John Doe
    */

}

Passing delegate as a parameter

namespace BasicsOfCSharp;

// Define a delegate type for arithmetic operations
delegate int ArithmeticOperation(int x, int y);

class Calculator
{
public int PerformOperation(int x, int y, ArithmeticOperation operation)
{
return operation(x, y);
}
}

class Program
{
    static int Add(int x, int y)
    {
    return x + y;
    }

    static int Subtract(int x, int y)
    {
        return x - y;
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        Calculator calc = new();
        // Pass the Add method as a delegate parameter
        int result1 = calc.PerformOperation(5, 3, Add);
        Console.WriteLine(result1);
        // Pass the Substract method as a  delegate parameter
        int result2 = calc.PerformOperation(5,3,Subtract);
        Console.WriteLine(result2);
    }

}

In this example:

  • We define a delegate type ArithmeticOperation that represents methods taking two int parameters and returning an int.
  • We define a Calculator class with a method PerformOperation that takes two integers and a delegate representing an arithmetic operation.
  • We define Add and Subtract methods that match the delegate signature.
  • In the Main method, we create an instance of the Calculator class and pass the Add and Subtract methods as delegate parameters to perform addition and subtraction operations, respectively.

Anonymous methods

Let’s look at this example.

namespace BasicsOfCSharp;

// Declare a delegate type
delegate void MyDelegate(string message);

class Program
{
// Method that matches the delegate signature
static void DisplayMessage(string message)
{
Console.WriteLine("Message: " + message);
}
static void Main()
{
        // Instantiate the delegate.
        MyDelegate handler = DisplayMessage;

        // calling the handler
        handler("Hello..");

    }

}

In this example, delegate MyDelegate is pointing to method DisplayMessage . We can achieve the same, without creating the actual method. We need to use anonymous method for that.

namespace BasicsOfCSharp;

// Declare a delegate type
delegate void MyDelegate(string message);

class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// Instantiate the delegate with anonymous method
MyDelegate handler = delegate(string message)
{
Console.WriteLine("Message: " + message);
};

        // calling the handler
        handler("Hello..");
    }

}

Lambda expression

Anonymous method can be replace with lambda expression.

namespace BasicsOfCSharp;

// Declare a delegate type
delegate void MyDelegate(string message);

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Instantiate the delegate with lambda expression
        MyDelegate handler = (string message)=>
        {
             Console.WriteLine("Message: " + message);
        };

        // calling the handler
        handler("Hello..");
    }

}

Generic Delegates (Action, Func, Predicate)In C#

Originally posted by Ravindra Devrani on February 10, 2024.

Canonical link

Exported from Medium on February 19, 2025.

csharp