What are callback methods?

Callback function is a function that is called through a function pointer. If you pass the pointer (address) of a function as an argument to another, when that pointer is used to call the function it points to it is said that a call back is made.

Why Should You Use Callback Functions?

A callback can be used for notifications. For instance, you need to set a timer in your application. Each time the timer expires, your application must be notified. But, the implementer of the time'rs mechanism doesn't know anything about your application. It only wants a pointer to a function with a given prototype, and in using that pointer it makes a callback, notifying your application about the event that has occurred. Indeed, the SetTimer() WinAPI uses a callback function to notify that the timer has expired (and, in case there is no callback function provided, it posts a message to the application's queue).

In general you supply a function as a parameter which gets called when something occurs.

In C code you will pass something that looks like this:

int (callback *)(void *, long );

meaning a function that takes two parameters, void * and long and returns an int.

With object-orientated languages the syntax is sometimes simpler. For example you might be able to construct a callback mechanism that allows the user to pass in an object that looks like a function or has an abstract method (thus wrapping a function) and context data too.

Modern languages use the term "delegate" to refer to a function "pattern". These can be used as callbacks. Some languages also use the term lambda which is essentially a function with no name, often created "on the fly" in a block of code and passed as a callback. C++11 has introduced these into its standard.

The advantage of using a callback is that you can separate out, i.e. reduce / decouple an API from what is calling it, and to some extent vice versa, i.e. although in one place you know you are calling into the API, at the point of the "handler" it does not need to know from where it was called.

For example, you can have an API that generates objects and then "calls-back" as they get generated.

The callback is something that you pass to a function, which tells it what it should call at some point in its operation. The code in the function decides when to call the function (and what arguments to pass). Typically, the way you do this is to pass the function itself as the 'callback', in languages where functions are objects. In other languages, you might have to pass some kind of special thing called a "function pointer" (or similar); or you might have to pass the name of the function (which then gets looked up at runtime).

A trivial example, in Python:

void call_something_three_times(what_to_call, what_to_pass_it):
    for i in xrange(3): what_to_call(what_to_pass_it)

# Write "Hi mom" three times, using a callback.
call_something_three_times(sys.stdout.write, "Hi mom\n")

This example let us separate the task of repeating a function call, from the task of actually calling the function. That's not very useful, but it demonstrates the concept.

In the real world, callbacks are used a lot for things like threading libraries, where you call some thread-creation function with a callback that describes the work that the thread will do. The thread-creation function does the necessary work to set up a thread, and then arranges for the callback function to be called by the new thread.

Wiki says:

In computer programming, a callback is a reference to executable code, or a piece of executable code, that is passed as an argument to other code. This allows a lower-level software layer to call a subroutine (or function) defined in a higher-level layer.

In common terms it is the mechanism to notify a piece of code i.e. a method, which piece of code to execute, i.e. another method, when it is needed.
Callback is related to the fact that the client of the calling function specifies a function that belongs to the client code's responsibility to the calling function to execute and this is passed as an argument.
An example is in GUIs. You pass as argument the function to be called once an event occurs (e.g. button pressed) and once the event occurs this function is called.
This function is usually implemented by the object that originally registered for the event