[c#] How to remove all event handlers from an event

To create a new event handler on a control you can do this

c.Click += new EventHandler(mainFormButton_Click);

or this

c.Click += mainFormButton_Click;

and to remove an event handler you can do this

c.Click -= mainFormButton_Click;

But how do you remove all event handlers from an event?

You guys are making this WAY too hard on yourselves. It's this easy:

void OnFormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
    foreach(Delegate d in FindClicked.GetInvocationList())
    {
        FindClicked -= (FindClickedHandler)d;
    }
}

From Removing All Event Handlers:

Directly no, in large part because you cannot simply set the event to null.

Indirectly, you could make the actual event private and create a property around it that tracks all of the delegates being added/subtracted to it.

Take the following:

List<EventHandler> delegates = new List<EventHandler>();

private event EventHandler MyRealEvent;

public event EventHandler MyEvent
{
    add
    {
        MyRealEvent += value;
        delegates.Add(value);
    }

    remove
    {
        MyRealEvent -= value;
        delegates.Remove(value);
    }
}

public void RemoveAllEvents()
{
    foreach(EventHandler eh in delegates)
    {
        MyRealEvent -= eh;
    }
    delegates.Clear();
}

Accepted answer is not full. It doesn't work for events declared as {add; remove;}

Here is working code:

public static void ClearEventInvocations(this object obj, string eventName)
{
    var fi = obj.GetType().GetEventField(eventName);
    if (fi == null) return;
    fi.SetValue(obj, null);
}

private static FieldInfo GetEventField(this Type type, string eventName)
{
    FieldInfo field = null;
    while (type != null)
    {
        /* Find events defined as field */
        field = type.GetField(eventName, BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        if (field != null && (field.FieldType == typeof(MulticastDelegate) || field.FieldType.IsSubclassOf(typeof(MulticastDelegate))))
            break;

        /* Find events defined as property { add; remove; } */
        field = type.GetField("EVENT_" + eventName.ToUpper(), BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        if (field != null)
            break;
        type = type.BaseType;
    }
    return field;
}

It doesn't do any harm to delete a non-existing event handler. So if you know what handlers there might be, you can simply delete all of them. I just had similar case. This may help in some cases.

Like:

// Add handlers...
if (something)
{
    c.Click += DoesSomething;
}
else
{
    c.Click += DoesSomethingElse;
}

// Remove handlers...
c.Click -= DoesSomething;
c.Click -= DoesSomethingElse;

I'm actually using this method and it works perfectly. I was 'inspired' by the code written by Aeonhack here.

Public Event MyEvent()
Protected Overrides Sub Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean)
    If MyEventEvent IsNot Nothing Then
        For Each d In MyEventEvent.GetInvocationList ' If this throws an exception, try using .ToArray
            RemoveHandler MyEvent, d
        Next
    End If
End Sub

The field MyEventEvent is hidden, but it does exist.

Debugging, you can see how d.target is the object actually handling the event, and d.method its method. You only have to remove it.

It works great. No more objects not being GC'ed because of the event handlers.

I hated any complete solutions shown here, I did a mix and tested now, worked for any event handler:

public class MyMain()
    public void MyMethod() {
        AnotherClass.TheEventHandler += DoSomeThing;
    }

    private void DoSomething(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        Debug.WriteLine("I did something");
        AnotherClass.ClearAllDelegatesOfTheEventHandler();
    }

}

public static class AnotherClass {

    public static event EventHandler TheEventHandler;

    public static void ClearAllDelegatesOfTheEventHandler() {

        foreach (Delegate d in TheEventHandler.GetInvocationList())
        {
            TheEventHandler -= (EventHandler)d;
        }
    }
}

Easy! Thanks for Stephen Punak.

I used it because I use a generic local method to remove the delegates and the local method was called after different cases, when different delegates are setted.

If you reaallly have to do this... it'll take reflection and quite some time to do this. Event handlers are managed in an event-to-delegate-map inside a control. You would need to

• Reflect and obtain this map in the control instance.
• Iterate for each event, get the delegate
  • each delegate in turn could be a chained series of event handlers. So call obControl.RemoveHandler(event, handler)

In short, a lot of work. It is possible in theory... I never tried something like this.

See if you can have better control/discipline over the subscribe-unsubscribe phase for the control.

I just found How to suspend events when setting a property of a WinForms control. It will remove all events from a control:

namespace CMessWin05
{
    public class EventSuppressor
    {
        Control _source;
        EventHandlerList _sourceEventHandlerList;
        FieldInfo _headFI;
        Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> _handlers;
        PropertyInfo _sourceEventsInfo;
        Type _eventHandlerListType;
        Type _sourceType;


        public EventSuppressor(Control control)
        {
            if (control == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("control", "An instance of a control must be provided.");

            _source = control;
            _sourceType = _source.GetType();
            _sourceEventsInfo = _sourceType.GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
            _sourceEventHandlerList = (EventHandlerList)_sourceEventsInfo.GetValue(_source, null);
            _eventHandlerListType = _sourceEventHandlerList.GetType();
            _headFI = _eventHandlerListType.GetField("head", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        }

        private void BuildList()
        {
            _handlers = new Dictionary<object, Delegate[]>();
            object head = _headFI.GetValue(_sourceEventHandlerList);
            if (head != null)
            {
                Type listEntryType = head.GetType();
                FieldInfo delegateFI = listEntryType.GetField("handler", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                FieldInfo keyFI = listEntryType.GetField("key", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                FieldInfo nextFI = listEntryType.GetField("next", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                BuildListWalk(head, delegateFI, keyFI, nextFI);
            }
        }

        private void BuildListWalk(object entry, FieldInfo delegateFI, FieldInfo keyFI, FieldInfo nextFI)
        {
            if (entry != null)
            {
                Delegate dele = (Delegate)delegateFI.GetValue(entry);
                object key = keyFI.GetValue(entry);
                object next = nextFI.GetValue(entry);

                Delegate[] listeners = dele.GetInvocationList();
                if(listeners != null && listeners.Length > 0)
                    _handlers.Add(key, listeners);

                if (next != null)
                {
                    BuildListWalk(next, delegateFI, keyFI, nextFI);
                }
            }
        }

        public void Resume()
        {
            if (_handlers == null)
                throw new ApplicationException("Events have not been suppressed.");

            foreach (KeyValuePair<object, Delegate[]> pair in _handlers)
            {
                for (int x = 0; x < pair.Value.Length; x++)
                    _sourceEventHandlerList.AddHandler(pair.Key, pair.Value[x]);
            }

            _handlers = null;
        }

        public void Suppress()
        {
            if (_handlers != null)
                throw new ApplicationException("Events are already being suppressed.");

            BuildList();

            foreach (KeyValuePair<object, Delegate[]> pair in _handlers)
            {
                for (int x = pair.Value.Length - 1; x >= 0; x--)
                    _sourceEventHandlerList.RemoveHandler(pair.Key, pair.Value[x]);
            }
        }

    }
}

Stephen has right. It is very easy:

public event EventHandler<Cles_graph_doivent_etre_redessines> les_graph_doivent_etre_redessines;
public void remove_event()
{
    if (this.les_graph_doivent_etre_redessines != null)
    {
        foreach (EventHandler<Cles_graph_doivent_etre_redessines> F_les_graph_doivent_etre_redessines in this.les_graph_doivent_etre_redessines.GetInvocationList())
        {
            this.les_graph_doivent_etre_redessines -= F_les_graph_doivent_etre_redessines;
        }
    }
}

This page helped me a lot. The code I got from here was meant to remove a click event from a button. I need to remove double click events from some panels and click events from some buttons. So I made a control extension, which will remove all event handlers for a certain event.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Reflection;
public static class EventExtension
{
    public static void RemoveEvents<T>(this T target, string eventName) where T:Control
    {
        if (ReferenceEquals(target, null)) throw new NullReferenceException("Argument \"target\" may not be null.");
        FieldInfo fieldInfo = typeof(Control).GetField(eventName, BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        if (ReferenceEquals(fieldInfo, null)) throw new ArgumentException(
            string.Concat("The control ", typeof(T).Name, " does not have a property with the name \"", eventName, "\""), nameof(eventName));
        object eventInstance = fieldInfo.GetValue(target);
        PropertyInfo propInfo = typeof(T).GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
        EventHandlerList list = (EventHandlerList)propInfo.GetValue(target, null);
        list.RemoveHandler(eventInstance, list[eventInstance]);
    }
}

Now, the usage of this extenstion. If you need to remove click events from a button,

Button button = new Button();
button.RemoveEvents(nameof(button.EventClick));

If you need to remove doubleclick events from a panel,

Panel panel = new Panel();
panel.RemoveEvents(nameof(panel.EventDoubleClick));

I am not an expert in C#, so if there are any bugs please forgive me and kindly let me know about it.

Wow. I found this solution, but nothing worked like I wanted. But this is so good:

EventHandlerList listaEventos;

private void btnDetach_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    listaEventos = DetachEvents(comboBox1);
}

private void btnAttach_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    AttachEvents(comboBox1, listaEventos);
}

public EventHandlerList DetachEvents(Component obj)
{
    object objNew = obj.GetType().GetConstructor(new Type[] { }).Invoke(new object[] { });
    PropertyInfo propEvents = obj.GetType().GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);

    EventHandlerList eventHandlerList_obj = (EventHandlerList)propEvents.GetValue(obj, null);
    EventHandlerList eventHandlerList_objNew = (EventHandlerList)propEvents.GetValue(objNew, null);

    eventHandlerList_objNew.AddHandlers(eventHandlerList_obj);
    eventHandlerList_obj.Dispose();

    return eventHandlerList_objNew;
}

public void AttachEvents(Component obj, EventHandlerList eventos)
{
    PropertyInfo propEvents = obj.GetType().GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);

    EventHandlerList eventHandlerList_obj = (EventHandlerList)propEvents.GetValue(obj, null);

    eventHandlerList_obj.AddHandlers(eventos);
}

Sometimes we have to work with ThirdParty controls and we need to build these awkward solutions. Based in @Anoop Muraleedharan answer I created this solution with inference type and ToolStripItem support

    public static void RemoveItemEvents<T>(this T target, string eventName) 
        where T : ToolStripItem
    {            
        RemoveObjectEvents<T>(target, eventName);
    }

    public static void RemoveControlEvents<T>(this T target, string eventName)
        where T : Control
    {
        RemoveObjectEvents<T>(target, eventName);
    }

    private static void RemoveObjectEvents<T>(T target, string Event) where T : class
    {
        var typeOfT = typeof(T);
        var fieldInfo = typeOfT.BaseType.GetField(
            Event, BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        var provertyValue = fieldInfo.GetValue(target);
        var propertyInfo = typeOfT.GetProperty(
            "Events", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
        var eventHandlerList = (EventHandlerList)propertyInfo.GetValue(target, null);
        eventHandlerList.RemoveHandler(provertyValue, eventHandlerList[provertyValue]);
    }

And you can use it like this

    var toolStripButton = new ToolStripButton();
    toolStripButton.RemoveItemEvents("EventClick");

    var button = new Button();
    button.RemoveControlEvents("EventClick");

I found another working solution by Douglas.

This method removes all event handlers which are set on a specific routet event on a element.
Use it like

Remove_RoutedEventHandlers(myImage, Image.MouseLeftButtonDownEvent);

Full code:

/// <summary>
/// Removes all event handlers subscribed to the specified routed event from the specified element.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="element">The UI element on which the routed event is defined.</param>
/// <param name="RoutetEvent_ToRemove">The routed event for which to remove the event handlers.</param>
public static void RemoveRoutedEventHandlers(UIElement UIElement_Target, RoutedEvent RoutetEvent_ToRemove)
{
    // Get the EventHandlersStore instance which holds event handlers for the specified element.
    // The EventHandlersStore class is declared as internal.
    PropertyInfo PropertyInfo_EventHandlersStore = typeof(UIElement).GetProperty(
        "EventHandlersStore", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
    object oEventHandlersStore = PropertyInfo_EventHandlersStore.GetValue(UIElement_Target, null);

    // If there's no event handler subscribed, return
    if (oEventHandlersStore == null) return;

    // Invoke the GetRoutedEventHandlers method on the EventHandlersStore instance 
    // for getting an array of the subscribed event handlers.
    MethodInfo MethodInfo_RoutedEventHandlers = oEventHandlersStore.GetType().GetMethod(
        "GetRoutedEventHandlers", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
    RoutedEventHandlerInfo[] RoutedEventHandlerInfos = (RoutedEventHandlerInfo[])MethodInfo_RoutedEventHandlers.Invoke(
        oEventHandlersStore, new object[] { RoutetEvent_ToRemove });

    // Iteratively remove all routed event handlers from the element.
    foreach (RoutedEventHandlerInfo RoutedEventHandlerInfo_Tmp in RoutedEventHandlerInfos)
        UIElement_Target.RemoveHandler(RoutetEvent_ToRemove, RoutedEventHandlerInfo_Tmp.Handler);
}

removes all handlers for button: save.RemoveEvents();

public static class EventExtension
{
    public static void RemoveEvents<T>(this T target) where T : Control
    {
       var propInfo = typeof(T).GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
        var list = (EventHandlerList)propInfo.GetValue(target, null);
        list.Dispose();
    }
}

This is not an answer to the OP, but I thought I'd post this here in case it can help others.

  /// <summary>
  /// Method to remove a (single) SocketAsyncEventArgs.Completed event handler. This is 
  /// partially based on information found here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/91853/253938
  /// 
  /// But note that this may not be a good idea, being very .Net implementation-dependent. Note 
  /// in particular use of "m_Completed" instead of "Completed".
  /// </summary>
  private static void RemoveCompletedEventHandler(SocketAsyncEventArgs eventArgs)
  {
     FieldInfo fieldInfo = typeof(SocketAsyncEventArgs).GetField("m_Completed", 
                                                BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
     eventArgs.Completed -= (EventHandler<SocketAsyncEventArgs>)fieldInfo.GetValue(eventArgs);
  }

Well, here there's another solution to remove an asociated event (if you already have a method for handling the events for the control):

EventDescriptor ed = TypeDescriptor.GetEvents(this.button1).Find("MouseDown",true);            
Delegate delegate = Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(EventHandler), this, "button1_MouseDownClicked");
if(ed!=null) 
    ed.RemoveEventHandler(this.button1, delegate);

I found this answer and it almost fit my needs. Thanks to SwDevMan81 for the class. I have modified it to allow suppression and resumation of individual methods, and I thought I'd post it here.

// This class allows you to selectively suppress event handlers for controls.  You instantiate
// the suppressor object with the control, and after that you can use it to suppress all events
// or a single event.  If you try to suppress an event which has already been suppressed
// it will be ignored.  Same with resuming; you can resume all events which were suppressed,
// or a single one.  If you try to resume an un-suppressed event handler, it will be ignored.

//cEventSuppressor _supButton1 = null;
//private cEventSuppressor SupButton1 {
//    get {
//        if (_supButton1 == null) {
//            _supButton1 = new cEventSuppressor(this.button1);
//        }
//        return _supButton1;
//    }
//}
//private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
//    MessageBox.Show("Clicked!");
//}

//private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
//    SupButton1.Suppress("button1_Click");
//}

//private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
//    SupButton1.Resume("button1_Click");
//}
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

using System.Reflection;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel;

namespace Crystal.Utilities {
    public class cEventSuppressor {
        Control _source;
        EventHandlerList _sourceEventHandlerList;
        FieldInfo _headFI;
        Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> suppressedHandlers = new Dictionary<object, Delegate[]>();
        PropertyInfo _sourceEventsInfo;
        Type _eventHandlerListType;
        Type _sourceType;

        public cEventSuppressor(Control control) {
            if (control == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("control", "An instance of a control must be provided.");

            _source = control;
            _sourceType = _source.GetType();
            _sourceEventsInfo = _sourceType.GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
            _sourceEventHandlerList = (EventHandlerList)_sourceEventsInfo.GetValue(_source, null);
            _eventHandlerListType = _sourceEventHandlerList.GetType();
            _headFI = _eventHandlerListType.GetField("head", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        }
        private Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> BuildList() {
            Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> retval = new Dictionary<object, Delegate[]>();
            object head = _headFI.GetValue(_sourceEventHandlerList);
            if (head != null) {
                Type listEntryType = head.GetType();
                FieldInfo delegateFI = listEntryType.GetField("handler", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                FieldInfo keyFI = listEntryType.GetField("key", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                FieldInfo nextFI = listEntryType.GetField("next", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
                retval = BuildListWalk(retval, head, delegateFI, keyFI, nextFI);
            }
            return retval;
        }

        private Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> BuildListWalk(Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> dict,
                                    object entry, FieldInfo delegateFI, FieldInfo keyFI, FieldInfo nextFI) {
            if (entry != null) {
                Delegate dele = (Delegate)delegateFI.GetValue(entry);
                object key = keyFI.GetValue(entry);
                object next = nextFI.GetValue(entry);

                if (dele != null) {
                    Delegate[] listeners = dele.GetInvocationList();
                    if (listeners != null && listeners.Length > 0) {
                        dict.Add(key, listeners);
                    }
                }
                if (next != null) {
                    dict = BuildListWalk(dict, next, delegateFI, keyFI, nextFI);
                }
            }
            return dict;
        }
        public void Resume() {
        }
        public void Resume(string pMethodName) {
            //if (_handlers == null)
            //    throw new ApplicationException("Events have not been suppressed.");
            Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> toRemove = new Dictionary<object, Delegate[]>();

            // goes through all handlers which have been suppressed.  If we are resuming,
            // all handlers, or if we find the matching handler, add it back to the
            // control's event handlers
            foreach (KeyValuePair<object, Delegate[]> pair in suppressedHandlers) {

                for (int x = 0; x < pair.Value.Length; x++) {

                    string methodName = pair.Value[x].Method.Name;
                    if (pMethodName == null || methodName.Equals(pMethodName)) {
                        _sourceEventHandlerList.AddHandler(pair.Key, pair.Value[x]);
                        toRemove.Add(pair.Key, pair.Value);
                    }
                }
            }
            // remove all un-suppressed handlers from the list of suppressed handlers
            foreach (KeyValuePair<object, Delegate[]> pair in toRemove) {
                for (int x = 0; x < pair.Value.Length; x++) {
                    suppressedHandlers.Remove(pair.Key);
                }
            }
            //_handlers = null;
        }
        public void Suppress() {
            Suppress(null);
        }
        public void Suppress(string pMethodName) {
            //if (_handlers != null)
            //    throw new ApplicationException("Events are already being suppressed.");

            Dictionary<object, Delegate[]> dict = BuildList();

            foreach (KeyValuePair<object, Delegate[]> pair in dict) {
                for (int x = pair.Value.Length - 1; x >= 0; x--) {
                    //MethodInfo mi = pair.Value[x].Method;
                    //string s1 = mi.Name; // name of the method
                    //object o = pair.Value[x].Target;
                    // can use this to invoke method    pair.Value[x].DynamicInvoke
                    string methodName = pair.Value[x].Method.Name;

                    if (pMethodName == null || methodName.Equals(pMethodName)) {
                        _sourceEventHandlerList.RemoveHandler(pair.Key, pair.Value[x]);
                        suppressedHandlers.Add(pair.Key, pair.Value);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    } 
}