How to: Use a Dictionary to Store Event Instances (C# Programming Guide)

One use for accessor-declarations is to expose many events without allocating a field for each event, but instead using a Dictionary to store the event instances. This is only useful if you have many events, but you expect most of the events will not be implemented.

Example

public delegate void EventHandler1(int i);
public delegate void EventHandler2(string s);

public class PropertyEventsSample
{
    private System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<string, System.Delegate> eventTable;

    public PropertyEventsSample()
    {
        eventTable = new System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<string, System.Delegate>();
        eventTable.Add("Event1", null);
        eventTable.Add("Event2", null);
    }

    public event EventHandler1 Event1
    {
        add
        {
            lock (eventTable)
            {
                eventTable["Event1"] = (EventHandler1)eventTable["Event1"] + value;
            }
        }
        remove
        {
            lock (eventTable)
            {
                eventTable["Event1"] = (EventHandler1)eventTable["Event1"] - value;
            }
        }
    }

    public event EventHandler2 Event2
    {
        add
        {
            lock (eventTable)
            {
                eventTable["Event2"] = (EventHandler2)eventTable["Event2"] + value;
            }
        }
        remove
        {
            lock (eventTable) 
            {               
                eventTable["Event2"] = (EventHandler2)eventTable["Event2"] - value;
            }
        }
    }

    internal void RaiseEvent1(int i)
    {
        EventHandler1 handler1;
        if (null != (handler1 = (EventHandler1)eventTable["Event1"]))
        {
            handler1(i);
        }
    }

    internal void RaiseEvent2(string s)
    {
        EventHandler2 handler2;
        if (null != (handler2 = (EventHandler2)eventTable["Event2"]))
        {
            handler2(s);
        }
    }
}

public class TestClass
{
    public static void Delegate1Method(int i)
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine(i);
    }

    public static void Delegate2Method(string s)
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine(s);
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        PropertyEventsSample p = new PropertyEventsSample();

        p.Event1 += new EventHandler1(TestClass.Delegate1Method);
        p.Event1 += new EventHandler1(TestClass.Delegate1Method);
        p.Event1 -= new EventHandler1(TestClass.Delegate1Method);
        p.RaiseEvent1(2);

        p.Event2 += new EventHandler2(TestClass.Delegate2Method);
        p.Event2 += new EventHandler2(TestClass.Delegate2Method);
        p.Event2 -= new EventHandler2(TestClass.Delegate2Method);
        p.RaiseEvent2("TestString");

        // Keep the console window open in debug mode.
        System.Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit.");
        System.Console.ReadKey();
    }
}
/* Output:
    2
    TestString
*/

See Also

Concepts

C# Programming Guide

Reference

Events (C# Programming Guide)

Delegates (C# Programming Guide)