Finalize vs Dispose

c# dispose
tush1r picture tush1r · Apr 9, 2009 · Viewed 144.6k times · Source

Why do some people use the Finalize method over the Dispose method?

In what situations would you use the Finalize method over the Dispose method and vice versa?

Answer

Samuel picture Samuel · Apr 9, 2009

The finalizer method is called when your object is garbage collected and you have no guarantee when this will happen (you can force it, but it will hurt performance).

The Dispose method on the other hand is meant to be called by the code that created your class so that you can clean up and release any resources you have acquired (unmanaged data, database connections, file handles, etc) the moment the code is done with your object.

The standard practice is to implement IDisposable and Dispose so that you can use your object in a using statment. Such as using(var foo = new MyObject()) { }. And in your finalizer, you call Dispose, just in case the calling code forgot to dispose of you.

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