🧑‍💼 A group representative 🤝 To give responsibility 💻 A method pointer

delegate

5 8.8

In programming, an object that holds a function so it can be called later

noun
/ˈdɛlɪɡeɪt/

Specialized

: delegado

Have you ever wanted to add multiple classes as a delegate for a UI control?

Examples

In programming, a delegate is used to define callback methods for event handling.
Here is the complete implementation of these delegate methods, just in case you get a bit lost:

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We allocate this thing, initialize it, set the delegate to us.
Both UITableView and UICollectionView ask their delegates for size information about the cells they display.

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To make SHCTableViewDragAddNew use this delegate, open SHCTableViewDragAddNew.h and adopt the delegate protocol:

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The delegate for the committee provided valuable insights during the meeting.
To handle user interactions effectively, developers often utilize a delegate to manage event responses.

Synonyms

lambda

vsdelegate

Specialized

3 7.6

A small unnamed function written directly in code for short tasks

is a stored type-safe object that keeps a reference for calling later

Compounds

apostolic delegate

Formal

9.9

A person the Pope sends to represent the Vatican in a country with no official relations

walking delegate

Jargon

9.1

A union representative who visits workplaces to check that agreements with employers are kept

Surface Forms

delegate singular

delegates plural

Etymology

In computing the word delegate keeps the same basic idea: it comes from de- and legare meaning 'away' and 'to send'. A computing delegate is like sending a small task to another method or function to do later, so the name fits because it 'sends' the work to someone else to perform.