What are 'closures' in .NET?

I have an article on this very topic. (It has lots of examples.)

In essence, a closure is a block of code which can be executed at a later time, but which maintains the environment in which it was first created - i.e. it can still use the local variables etc of the method which created it, even after that method has finished executing.

The general feature of closures is implemented in C# by anonymous methods and lambda expressions.

Here's an example using an anonymous method:

using System;

class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Action action = CreateAction();
        action();
        action();
    }

    static Action CreateAction()
    {
        int counter = 0;
        return delegate
        {
            // Yes, it could be done in one statement; 
            // but it is clearer like this.
            counter++;
            Console.WriteLine("counter={0}", counter);
        };
    }
}

Output:

counter=1
counter=2

Here we can see that the action returned by CreateAction still has access to the counter variable, and can indeed increment it, even though CreateAction itself has finished.

If you are interested in seeing how C# implements Closure read "I know the answer (its 42) blog"

The compiler generates a class in the background to encapsulate the anoymous method and the variable j

[CompilerGenerated]
private sealed class <>c__DisplayClass2
{
    public <>c__DisplayClass2();
    public void <fillFunc>b__0()
    {
       Console.Write("{0} ", this.j);
    }
    public int j;
}

for the function:

static void fillFunc(int count) {
    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
    {
        int j = i;
        funcArr[i] = delegate()
                     {
                         Console.Write("{0} ", j);
                     };
    } 
}

Turning it into:

private static void fillFunc(int count)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
    {
        Program.<>c__DisplayClass1 class1 = new Program.<>c__DisplayClass1();
        class1.j = i;
        Program.funcArr[i] = new Func(class1.<fillFunc>b__0);
    }
}

Closures are functional values that hold onto variable values from their original scope. C# can use them in the form of anonymous delegates.

For a very simple example, take this C# code:

    delegate int testDel();

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        int foo = 4;
        testDel myClosure = delegate()
        {
            return foo;
        };
        int bar = myClosure();

    }

At the end of it, bar will be set to 4, and the myClosure delegate can be passed around to be used elsewhere in the program.

Closures can be used for a lot of useful things, like delayed execution or to simplify interfaces - LINQ is mainly built using closures. The most immediate way it comes in handy for most developers is adding event handlers to dynamically created controls - you can use closures to add behavior when the control is instantiated, rather than storing data elsewhere.