Edit

Share via

How to combine delegates (Multicast Delegates) (C# Programming Guide)

  • Article

This example demonstrates how to create multicast delegates. A useful property of delegate objects is that multiple objects can be assigned to one delegate instance by using the + operator. The multicast delegate contains a list of the assigned delegates. When the multicast delegate is called, it invokes the delegates in the list, in order. Only delegates of the same type can be combined. The - operator can be used to remove a component delegate from a multicast delegate.

using System;


namespace DelegateExamples;

// Define a custom delegate that has a string parameter and returns void.
delegate void CustomCallback(string s);

class TestClass
{
    // Define two methods that have the same signature as CustomCallback.
    static void Hello(string s)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"  Hello, {s}!");
    }

    static void Goodbye(string s)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"  Goodbye, {s}!");
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        // Declare instances of the custom delegate.
        CustomCallback hiDel, byeDel, multiDel, multiMinusHiDel;

        // In this example, you can omit the custom delegate if you
        // want to and use Action<string> instead.
        //Action<string> hiDel, byeDel, multiDel, multiMinusHiDel;

        // Initialize the delegate object hiDel that references the
        // method Hello.
        hiDel = Hello;

        // Initialize the delegate object byeDel that references the
        // method Goodbye.
        byeDel = Goodbye;

        // The two delegates, hiDel and byeDel, are combined to
        // form multiDel.
        multiDel = hiDel + byeDel;

        // Remove hiDel from the multicast delegate, leaving byeDel,
        // which calls only the method Goodbye.
        multiMinusHiDel = (multiDel - hiDel)!;

        Console.WriteLine("Invoking delegate hiDel:");
        hiDel("A");
        Console.WriteLine("Invoking delegate byeDel:");
        byeDel("B");
        Console.WriteLine("Invoking delegate multiDel:");
        multiDel("C");
        Console.WriteLine("Invoking delegate multiMinusHiDel:");
        multiMinusHiDel("D");
    }
}
/* Output:
Invoking delegate hiDel:
  Hello, A!
Invoking delegate byeDel:
  Goodbye, B!
Invoking delegate multiDel:
  Hello, C!
  Goodbye, C!
Invoking delegate multiMinusHiDel:
  Goodbye, D!
*/

See also