event Action<> vs event EventHandler<>

Question

Is there any different between declaring event Action<> and event EventHandler<>.

Assuming it doesn\'t matter what object actua

Answer 1

If you follow the standard event pattern, then you can add an extension method to make the checking of event firing safer/easier. (i.e. the following code adds an extension method called SafeFire() which does the null check, as well as (obviously) copying the event into a separate variable to be safe from the usual null race-condition that can affect events.)

(Although I am in kind of two minds whether you should be using extension methods on null objects...)

public static class EventFirer
{
    public static void SafeFire(this EventHandler theEvent, object obj, TEventArgs theEventArgs)
        where TEventArgs : EventArgs
    {
        if (theEvent != null)
            theEvent(obj, theEventArgs);
    }
}

class MyEventArgs : EventArgs
{
    // Blah, blah, blah...
}

class UseSafeEventFirer
{
    event EventHandler MyEvent;

    void DemoSafeFire()
    {
        MyEvent.SafeFire(this, new MyEventArgs());
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var x = new UseSafeEventFirer();

        Console.WriteLine("Null:");
        x.DemoSafeFire();

        Console.WriteLine();

        x.MyEvent += delegate { Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!"); };
        Console.WriteLine("Not null:");
        x.DemoSafeFire();
    }
}