BleepingComputer.com: why use delegates?

why use delegates?

I understand HOW to use delegates, but in what situations would you actually use them? The examples I see in the literature are all in situations where the code could just be written without ever using them.

Hi, I recently made some notes on delegates (in the context of C#). I think my main sources were wikipedia and MSDN:

A delegate is a 'type-safe function pointer', in other words an object which knows how to call a method on another object. They allow methods to be passed as parameters and are an alternative to interfaces.

When to use a delegate

• An eventing design pattern is used.
  
• It is desirable to encapsulate a static method.
  
• The caller has no need to access other properties, methods or interfaces on the object implementing the method.
  
• Easy composition is derised (Abstraction).
  
• A class may need more than one implementation of the method.

When to use and interface

• There is a group of related methods that may be called.
  
• A class only needs one implementation of the method.
  
• The class using the interface will want to cast that interface to other types.
  
• The method being implemented is linked to the type or identity of the class, e.g comparison methods.

E.G IComparable (C#) - a single-method interface instead of a delegate.