Why can't I put a delegate in an interface?

Question

Why can\'t I add a delegate to my interface?

Answer 1

An interface method can accept a delegate as a parameter, no issues. (Maybe I'm not seeing the problem?) But if the intention is to specify an outbound call in the interface, use an event.

There are so many little details, it's a lot easier to just show some code instead of trying to describe it all in prose. (Sorry, even the code sample is a bit bloated...)

namespace DelegatesAndEvents
{
    public class MyEventArgs : EventArgs
    {
        public string Message { get; set; }
        public MyEventArgs(string message) { Message = message; }
    }

    delegate void TwoWayCallback(string message);
    delegate void TwoWayEventHandler(object sender, MyEventArgs eventArgs);

    interface ITwoWay
    {
        void CallThis(TwoWayCallback callback);

        void Trigger(string message);
        event TwoWayEventHandler TwoWayEvent;
    }

    class Talkative : ITwoWay
    {
        public void CallThis(TwoWayCallback callback)
        {
            callback("Delegate invoked.");
        }

        public void Trigger(string message)
        {
            TwoWayEvent.Invoke(this, new MyEventArgs(message));
        }

        public event TwoWayEventHandler TwoWayEvent;
    }

    class Program
    {
        public static void MyCallback(string message)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(message);
        }

        public static void OnMyEvent(object sender, MyEventArgs eventArgs)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(eventArgs.Message);
        }

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Talkative talkative = new Talkative();

            talkative.CallThis(MyCallback);

            talkative.TwoWayEvent += new TwoWayEventHandler(OnMyEvent);
            talkative.Trigger("Event fired with this message.");

            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}