Why do we need C# delegates

Question

I never seem to understand why we need delegates? I know they are immutable reference types that hold reference of a method but why can\'t we just call the method directly,

Answer 1

1. Delegates supports Events
2. Delegates give your program a way to execute methods without having to know precisely what those methods are at compile time

Answer 2

Think of C/C++ function pointers, and how you treat javascript event-handling functions as "data" and pass them around. In Delphi language also there is procedural type. Behind the scenes, C# delegate and lambda expressions, and all those things are essentially the same idea: code as data. And this constitutes the very basis for functional programming.