Delegates are fundamental to the .NET Framework (events and callbacks wouldn't work without them) and can be extremely powerful to the .NET Developer once they come to grasps with exactly what they are and how to use them. In this blog I will consider aspects of a real world situation in which delagates are useful, after which I will explain, in illustrative terms exactly what delegates are all about. You will see how delegates are an intrinsic part of the events structure in the .NET framework, but also why they are useful in their own right. First, though, we need to understand a little about the origins of delgates in the .NET framework.

The origins of delegates

Delegates in .NET languages such as C# and VB.NET are akin to function pointers in C++. I have found that simply being aware of this pseudonym it extremely helpful in understanding delegates. The term helps us to understand that delegates allow a developer to provide a pointer to a method/function/sub etc. But when would a developer find this to be useful?...