C# Language Specification

Static and instance events

When an event declaration includes a static modifier, the event is said to be a static event. When no static modifier is present, the event is said to be an instance event.

A static event is not associated with a specific instance, and it is a compile-time error to refer to this in the accessors of a static event.

An instance event is associated with a given instance of a class, and this instance can be accessed as this (§7.6.7) in the accessors of that event.

When an event is referenced in a member-access (§7.6.4) of the form E.M, if M is a static event, E must denote a type containing M, and if M is an instance event, E must denote an instance of a type containing M.

The differences between static and instance members are discussed further in §10.3.7.

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