How To Use Delegate and Its Type

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Written By:-Isha Malhotra

Email:-malhotra.isha3388@gmail.com

                                     How To Use Delegate and Its Type

Delegate is a reference type which refer to a method. Delegates object hold the reference of method of same signature. We invoke the method through delegate and this can be determined at the runtime instead of compile time.

Note:-delegates can invoke both static and non static method.

Syntax of delegate:-

Public delegate return_typ delegate_name(parameters);

For Example:-

For non static method

Suppose we are creating a class which contains some method for sum, div, sub and mul of two numbers. We create delegate to hold the reference of these methods.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

//delegate for holding method of same signature

public delegate int calculation(int x, int y);

public class delegatePract

{

    public int sum(int p, int q)

    {

        return p + q;

   

    }

    public int mul(int p, int q)

    {

        return p * q;

    }

    public int div(int p, int q)

    {

        return p / q;

    }

    public int sub(int p, int q)

    {

        return p - q;

    }

}

Now create web form and in page load create the object of class which holds the method and create the object of delegate and pass the ref to this delegate and call the method.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page

{

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        delegatePract dp=new delegatePract();

        calculation cal = new calculation(dp.sum);

        Response.Write(cal(5, 6));

    }

}

In this example first we create the object of class and after that we pass the reference of sum method to the delegate object and invoke the method which return the sum as we mentioned this definition in the method.

For static method

Now create the class which contains the static method

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

public delegate int calculation(int x, int y);

public class delegatePract

{

    public static int sum(int p, int q)

    {

        return p + q;

   

    }

    public static int mul(int p, int q)

    {

        return p * q;

    }

    public static int div(int p, int q)

    {

        return p / q;

    }

    public static int sub(int p, int q)

    {

        return p - q;

    }

}

Now create the object of delegate in page load and pass the reference of method with the class name as we create static method and we can call static method with class name.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page

{

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

       //creating the object of delegation

        calculation cal = new calculation(delegatePract.sum);

        Response.Write(cal(5, 6));

      

    }

}

Type of Delegates:-

1.     Single Cast Delegates:- single cast delegates are those delegates which holds the reference of single method as shown in the above example. It is derives from the System.Delegate name space.

2.     Multi cast Delegates:-multicast delegates contains the reference of multiple methods in series. We have to use the + - and = operator to add method and remove method from this series.

For example:-

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page

{

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        delegatePract dp=new delegatePract();

        calculation cal = new calculation(dp.sum);

        Response.Write(cal(5, 6));

        cal += dp.mul;

        cal += dp.sub;

        cal -= dp.mul;

        Response.Write(cal(6, 6));

    }

}