---
title: "Concept of Delegates"  
description: "Delegates are references to methods. So we have used to references to object, e.g.Employee emp = new Employee ();Here emp is a reference to an object"  
author: "Uttam Misra"  
published: 2010-10-12  
updated: 2014-09-18  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/blog/21/concept-of-delegates  
category: ".net"  
tags: [".net"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# Concept of Delegates

**Delegates** are references to [methods](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/13060/runny-nose-remedy-methods-that-work-best). So we have used to references to object, e.g.

[Employee](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/85431/remote-employee-training-tips-tricks) emp = new Employee ();

Here emp is a [reference](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/774/reference-what-does-this-error-mean-in-php) to an object of the Employee class type. Hence, each reference has two [properties](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/23331/nootropics-7-different-types-and-their-unique-properties):

1. The type of object (class) the reference can point to.

2. The actual object referenced (or pointed to) by the reference.

**Delegates** are similar to object references, but are used to reference methods instead of objects. The type of a [delegate](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/777/delegate-and-event-in-c-sharp) is type or [signature](https://www.mindstick.com/interview/516/explain-about-xml-signature) of the method rather than class. Hence a delegate has three properties:

· The type or signature of the method that the delegate can point to

· The delegate reference which can we used to reference a method

· The actual method referenced by the delegate

The [concept of delegates](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159976/explain-the-concept-of-delegates-and-events-in-c-sharp) is similar to the [function](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/13001/multi-statement-table-valued-user-defined-function-in-sql-server) [pointers](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/1811/objective-c-pointers) used in C++

---

Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/blog/21/concept-of-delegates

Copyright © MindStick Software Pvt. Ltd. This Markdown version is provided for developers, AI systems, and offline reading.