What is the difference between lambdas and delegates in the .NET Framework?

Question

I get asked this question a lot and I thought I\'d solicit some input on how to best describe the difference.

Answer 1

Lambdas are simplified versions of delegates. They have some of the the properties of a closure like anonymous delegates, but also allow you to use implied typing. A lambda like this:

something.Sort((x, y) => return x.CompareTo(y));

is a lot more concise than what you can do with a delegate:

something.Sort(sortMethod);
...

private int sortMethod(SomeType one, SomeType two)
{
    one.CompareTo(two)
}