Empty Anonymous Delegates in Event Declarations: Performance Boon or Drain?

Performance Implications of Adding an Empty Anonymous Delegate to Event Declarations

The practice of adding an anonymous empty delegate to event declarations has been a subject of discussion. While it addresses the need for null checks before event invocation, some may question its drawbacks.

Pros and Cons

The primary advantage of this idiom lies in its convenience. It eliminates the need for explicit null checks, simplifying event handling code. However, concerns arise regarding its performance implications and widespread adoption.

Performance Considerations

Contrary to common belief, the empty delegate call does not incur significant performance overhead. In practice, it adds negligible impact to event triggering.

Adoption and Maintenance

The widespread use of this technique suggests its familiarity within the developer community. It is generally considered transparent and unlikely to hinder future maintenance, provided that programmers are aware of its purpose.

An Alternative Approach

Instead of relying on an empty delegate, an alternative solution is available:

public static void Raise(this EventHandler handler, object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if(handler != null)
    {
        handler(sender, e);
    }
}

This extension method simplifies event handling by abstracting the null check into a single function. It allows developers to raise events without explicitly checking for null subscribers, ensuring consistent behavior and eliminating redundant null checks.

The above is the detailed content of Empty Anonymous Delegates in Event Declarations: Performance Boon or Drain?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!