Delegates can refer to several concepts. An object can rely on another (a delegate) to perform a function. Delegation can also refer to programming language feature making use of the method lookup rules for dispatching self-calls. In C#, a delegate defines which method to call when an event is triggered.
In object-oriented programming, there are three related notions of delegation.
Most commonly, delegation refers to a programming language feature making use of the method lookup rules for dispatching so-called self-calls. Delegation as a language feature supports the prototype-based programming model.
Delegation can also refer to one object relying upon another to provide a specified set of functionalities. In research, this is often referred to as consultation or as aggregation in modeling.
In C#, a delegate is a way of telling which method to call when an event is triggered, keeping the method type.
A Delegate is a type that safely encapsulates a method, similar to a function pointer in C and C++. Unlike C function pointers, delegates are object-oriented, type safe, and secure.
