In C#, why can't I test if a event handler is null anywhere outside of the class that it's defined?

Question

I am sure that I am just not understanding something fundamental about events and/or delegates in C#, but why can\'t I do the Boolean tests in this code sample:

Answer 1

It's a rule in place when using the 'event' keyword. When you create an event, you are restricting outside class interaction with the delegate to a "subscribe / unsubscribe" relationship, this includes cases of inheritance. Remember an event is essentially a property, but for method calls, it isn't really an object itself, so really it looks more like this:

public event SomeEventHandler SomeEvent
{
     add
     {
          //Add method call to delegate
     }
     remove
     {
          //Remove method call to delegate
     }
}