Should I call Close on HttpWebResponse, even if it's inside a using statement?

.net garbage-collection idisposable
BlackTigerX picture BlackTigerX · Feb 2, 2009 · Viewed 11.1k times · Source

I have some code like, this code is used very heavily:

using (HttpWebResponse r = _GetHttpWebResponse(uri, body, method, contentType, headers)) {
    /* do something with the response */

    /* call r.Close() explicitly? */
}

The code works fine today, but the connections to the server stay open for quite some time. (checked using TCPView)

Is there a benefit to calling the Close() method explicitly? Is it recommended, or maybe recommended not to do it, and why?

Answer

Sean Bright picture Sean Bright · Feb 2, 2009

When Dispose() is called on WebResponse (HttpWebReponse's base class), it calls it's Close() method for you. A quick glance using Reflector confirms this.

Edit (in response to comment): If it's called for you already, why call it explicitly? For the sake of clarity? I think if people understand the using (X x = ...) statement, they'll understand that it is closing the underlying connection. You gain nothing by calling it explicitly in this case.

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