Question

I have two generic delegates that I am atttempting to define that the compiler is complaining that they are duplicates, but to my eye are completely different. What am I doing/understanding wrong?

delegate TReturn foo<TParameter, out TReturn>(TParameter parameter, IItem item);

and

delegate TReturn foo<TParameter, out TReturn>(TParameter parameter, int field, IItem item);

If I add a new generic parameter to the second delegate, everything works.

delegate TReturn foo<TParameter, TField, out TReturn>(TParameter parameter, TField field, IItem item) where TField struct

but that is does not appear to be correct. I will always be passing an int for field – it should not be a generic.

Answer 1

Delegates are not methods. They know how to call a method, but they themselves are not methods (a delegate is an object) and can therefore not be overloaded like a method.

See this post for an explanation of why it cannot be possible.