What are delegates?

Hi,

A delegate is a type that represents references to methods with a particular parameter list and return type. When you instantiate a delegate, you can associate its instance with any method with a compatible signature and return type.

So it is function pointer not the function...

Please refer
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-IN/library/ms173171.aspx

hope this will help you.

Delegates are explained in the following website
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K9Aq7die7Q

Delegates are not methods. Delegates are function pointers. it means delegate points to function or set of functions which match signature.

There are two kind of delegate
1. Single cast delegate - this kind of delegate points only to one method

delegate void Print(string str);
static void Main(string[] args)
 {
    Print printstring = Printstring;
    printstring.Invoke("Hello World!!");
    Console.Read();
 }

  static void Printstring(string str) { Console.WriteLine(str); }

2. multi cast delegate - this kind of delegate points to multiple methods using + sign.

delegate void Print(string str);

static void Main(string[] args)
 {
    Print printstring += Printstring;
    printstring += PrintWithName;
   //below statment invoke both method assign to delegate
    printstring.Invoke("Hello World!!");
  Console.Read();
 }

 static void Printstring(string str) { Console.WriteLine(str); }

  static void PrintWithName(string str) { Console.WriteLine("Pranay" + str); }



So main difference between method and delegate is

1. delegate can point to method or set of methods
2. With the help of delegate you can pass method as agrument to another function
3. With the delegate you can hold reference to method or methods , that you can by calling invoke method . if delegate point to mutiple method it runs all methods in one go.

you can read about it more here : http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/624575/Delegate-Tutorial-for-Beginners

Advance type of delegate : http://pranayamr.blogspot.in/2012/08/delegate-and-action-and-func-and-lamda.html