Delegate & Event

A delegate is a reference type, like the other reference types you've seen in this book, but instead of referring to an object, a delegate refers to a method. This is called encapsulating the method. When you create the delegate, you specify a method signature and return type; you can encapsulate any matching method with that delegate.

namespace DelegateTest { // a class to hold the information about the event // in this case it will hold only information // available in the clock class, but could hold // additional state information public class TimeInfoEventArgs : EventArgs { public int hour; public int minute; public int second; public TimeInfoEventArgs(int hour, int minute, int second) { this.hour = hour; this.minute = minute; this.second = second; } } // The publisher: the class that other classes // will observe. This class publishes one delegate: // SecondChangeHandler. public class Clock { private int hour; private int minute; private int second; // the delegate the subscribers must implement public delegate void SecondChangeHandler(object clock, TimeInfoEventArgs timeInformation); // an instance of the delegate public SecondChangeHandler SecondChanged; // set the clock running // it will raise an event for each new second public void Run() { for (; ; ) { // sleep 100 milliseconds Thread.Sleep(100); // get the current time System.DateTime dt = System.DateTime.Now; // if the second has changed // notify the subscribers if (dt.Second != second) { // create the TimeInfoEventArgs object // to pass to the subscriber TimeInfoEventArgs timeInformation = new TimeInfoEventArgs(dt.Hour, dt.Minute, dt.Second); // 这里是相当于一个发布者，如果自身改变的话，通知注册过的 // 用户 // if anyone has subscribed, notify them if (SecondChanged != null) { SecondChanged(this, timeInformation); } } // update the state this.second = dt.Second; this.minute = dt.Minute; this.hour = dt.Hour; } } } // A subscriber: DisplayClock subscribes to the // clock's events. The job of DisplayClock is // to display the current time public class DisplayClock { // given a clock, subscribe to // its SecondChangeHandler event public void Subscribe(Clock theClock) { // 这里向发布者注册自己，然后如果发布者改变的 // 话，就可以直接调用这个函数。 theClock.SecondChanged += new Clock.SecondChangeHandler(TimeHasChanged); } // the method that implements the // delegated functionality public void TimeHasChanged(object theClock, TimeInfoEventArgs ti) { Console.WriteLine("Current Time: {0}:{1}:{2}", ti.hour.ToString(), ti.minute.ToString(), ti.second.ToString()); } } // a second subscriber whose job is to write to a file public class LogCurrentTime { public void Subscribe(Clock theClock) { theClock.SecondChanged += new Clock.SecondChangeHandler(WriteLogEntry); } // this method should write to a file // we write to the console to see the effect // this object keeps no state public void WriteLogEntry(object theClock, TimeInfoEventArgs ti) { Console.WriteLine("Logging to file: {0}:{1}:{2}", ti.hour.ToString(), ti.minute.ToString(), ti.second.ToString()); } } public class Tester { public void Run() { // create a new clock Clock theClock = new Clock(); // create the display and tell it to // subscribe to the clock just created DisplayClock dc = new DisplayClock(); dc.Subscribe(theClock); // create a Log object and tell it // to subscribe to the clock LogCurrentTime lct = new LogCurrentTime(); lct.Subscribe(theClock); // Get the clock started theClock.Run(); } } public class Program { public static void Main() { Tester t = new Tester(); t.Run(); } } }

Events enable a class or object to notify other classes or objects when something of interest occurs. The class that sends (or raises) the event is called the publisher and the classes that receive (or handle) the event are called subscribers.

public class Publisher { // Declare the delegate (if using non-generic pattern). public delegate void SampleEventHandler(object sender, SampleEventArgs e); // Declare the event. public event SampleEventHandler SampleEvent; // Wrap the event in a protected virtual method // to enable derived classes to raise the event. protected virtual void RaiseSampleEvent() { // Raise the event by using the () operator. SampleEvent(this, new SampleEventArgs("Hello")); } }