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Concept
Callback (computer programming)
Summary
In computer programming, a callback or callback function is any reference to executable code that is passed as an argument to another piece of code; that code is expected to call back (execute) the callback function as part of its job. This execution may be immediate as in a synchronous callback, or it might happen at a later point in time as in an asynchronous callback. They are also called blocking and non-blocking.
Programming languages support callbacks in different ways, often implementing them with subroutines, lambda expressions, blocks, or function pointers.
There are two types of callbacks, differing in how they control data flow at runtime: blocking callbacks (also known as synchronous callbacks or just callbacks) and deferred callbacks (also known as asynchronous callbacks). While blocking callbacks are invoked before a function returns (as in the C example below), deferred callbacks may be invoked after a function returns. Deferred callbacks are often used in the context of I/O operations or event handling, and are called by interrupts or by a different thread in case of multiple threads. Due to their nature, blocking callbacks can work without interrupts or multiple threads, meaning that blocking callbacks are not commonly used for synchronization or for delegating work to another thread.
Callbacks are used to program applications in windowing systems. In this case, the application supplies (a reference to) a specific custom callback function for the operating system to call, which then calls this application-specific function in response to events like mouse clicks or key presses. A major concern here is the management of privilege and security: while the function is called from the operating system, it should not run with the same privilege as the system. A solution to this problem is using rings of protection.
The form of a callback varies among programming languages:
In assembly, C, C++, Pascal, Modula2 and similar languages, a machine-level pointer to a function may be passed as an argument to another (internal or external) function.
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