c# - In .NET, what is the internal implementation of a delegate?

Question

I understand that a declaration of a delegate is something like this:

public delegate int PerformCalculation(int x, int y);

However, there must be more going on. The purpose of the delegate is to provide a pointer to a method, and to do that you encapsulate the reference to the method in the delegate.

What kind of structure is this reference held in (internally in the delegate)? I also understand that you can encapsulate a reference to multiple methods in a delegate. Does this mean that there is an array in the delegate that holds these?

Also, what methods are defined in the delegate, etc. What is really happening when you declare a delegate with the terse:

public delegate int PerformCalculation(int x, int y);

?

EDIT: Some clarification. When you declare a delegate, the compiler automatically creates a sealed class that inherits from System.MulticastDelegate for you. You can see this if you look at your assembly with ildasm. This neat. Basically, with one statement, you are getting an entire new class generated for you at compile time, and it has all the functionality you need.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65878401/how-do-i-get-to-the-implementation-code-of-delegates-virtual-method-like-invoke

Answer 1

All delegates inherit from the System.Delegate type which hold a Target and Method. More precisely they inherit from System.MultiCastDelegate which inherits from System.Delegate.