The common language runtime's garbage collector reclaims the memory used by managed objects, but types that use unmanaged resources implement the IDisposable interface to allow the memory allocated to these unmanaged resources to be reclaimed. When you finish using an object that implements IDisposable, you should call the object's IDisposable.Dispose implementation. You can do this in one of two ways:
With the C#
usingstatement or the Visual BasicUsingstatement.By implementing a
try/finallyblock.
The using statement
The using statement in C# and the Using statement in Visual Basic simplify the code that you must write to create and clean up an object. The using statement obtains one or more resources, executes the statements that you specify, and automatically disposes of the object. However, the using statement is useful only for objects that are used within the scope of the method in which they are constructed.
The following example uses the using statement to create and release a StreamReader object.
using System;
using System.IO;
public class Example
{
public static void Main()
{
Char[] buffer = new Char[50];
using (StreamReader s = new StreamReader("File1.txt")) {
int charsRead = 0;
while (s.Peek() != -1) {
charsRead = s.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
//
// Process characters read.
//
}
s.Close();
}
}
}
Imports System.IO
Module Example
Public Sub Main()
Dim buffer(49) As Char
Using s As New StreamReader("File1.txt")
Dim charsRead As Integer
Do While s.Peek() <> -1
charsRead = s.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)
'
' Process characters read.
'
Loop
s.Close()
End Using
End Sub
End Module
Note that although the StreamReader class implements the IDisposable interface, which indicates that it uses an unmanaged resource, the example doesn't explicitly call the StreamReader.Dispose method. When the C# or Visual Basic compiler encounters the using statement, it emits intermediate language (IL) that is equivalent to the following code that explicitly contains a try/finally block.
using System;
using System.IO;
public class Example
{
public static void Main()
{
Char[] buffer = new Char[50];
{
StreamReader s = new StreamReader("File1.txt");
try {
int charsRead = 0;
while (s.Peek() != -1) {
charsRead = s.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
//
// Process characters read.
//
}
s.Close();
}
finally {
if (s != null)
((IDisposable)s).Dispose();
}
}
}
}
Imports System.IO
Module Example
Public Sub Main()
Dim buffer(49) As Char
'' Dim s As New StreamReader("File1.txt")
With s As New StreamReader("File1.txt")
Try
Dim charsRead As Integer
Do While s.Peek() <> -1
charsRead = s.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)
'
' Process characters read.
'
Loop
s.Close()
Finally
If s IsNot Nothing Then DirectCast(s, IDisposable).Dispose()
End Try
End With
End Sub
End Module
The C# using statement also allows you to acquire multiple resources in a single statement, which is internally equivalent to nested using statements. The following example instantiates two StreamReader objects to read the contents of two different files.
using System;
using System.IO;
public class Example
{
public static void Main()
{
Char[] buffer1 = new Char[50], buffer2 = new Char[50];
using (StreamReader version1 = new StreamReader("file1.txt"),
version2 = new StreamReader("file2.txt")) {
int charsRead1, charsRead2 = 0;
while (version1.Peek() != -1 && version2.Peek() != -1) {
charsRead1 = version1.Read(buffer1, 0, buffer1.Length);
charsRead2 = version2.Read(buffer2, 0, buffer2.Length);
//
// Process characters read.
//
}
version1.Close();
version2.Close();
}
}
}
Try/finally block
Instead of wrapping a try/finally block in a using statement, you may choose to implement the try/finally block directly. This may be your personal coding style, or you might want to do this for one of the following reasons:
To include a
catchblock to handle any exceptions thrown in thetryblock. Otherwise, any exceptions thrown by theusingstatement are unhandled, as are any exceptions thrown within theusingblock if atry/catchblock isn't present.To instantiate an object that implements IDisposable whose scope is not local to the block within which it is declared.
The following example is similar to the previous example, except that it uses a try/catch/finally block to instantiate, use, and dispose of a StreamReader object, and to handle any exceptions thrown by the StreamReader constructor and its ReadToEnd method. Note that the code in the finally block checks that the object that implements IDisposable isn't null before it calls the Dispose method. Failure to do this can result in a NullReferenceException exception at run time.
using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;
public class Example
{
public static void Main()
{
StreamReader sr = null;
try {
sr = new StreamReader("file1.txt");
String contents = sr.ReadToEnd();
sr.Close();
Console.WriteLine("The file has {0} text elements.",
new StringInfo(contents).LengthInTextElements);
}
catch (FileNotFoundException) {
Console.WriteLine("The file cannot be found.");
}
catch (IOException) {
Console.WriteLine("An I/O error has occurred.");
}
catch (OutOfMemoryException) {
Console.WriteLine("There is insufficient memory to read the file.");
}
finally {
if (sr != null) sr.Dispose();
}
}
}
Imports System.Globalization
Imports System.IO
Module Example
Public Sub Main()
Dim sr As StreamReader = Nothing
Try
sr = New StreamReader("file1.txt")
Dim contents As String = sr.ReadToEnd()
sr.Close()
Console.WriteLine("The file has {0} text elements.",
New StringInfo(contents).LengthInTextElements)
Catch e As FileNotFoundException
Console.WriteLine("The file cannot be found.")
Catch e As IOException
Console.WriteLine("An I/O error has occurred.")
Catch e As OutOfMemoryException
Console.WriteLine("There is insufficient memory to read the file.")
Finally
If sr IsNot Nothing Then sr.Dispose()
End Try
End Sub
End Module
You can follow this basic pattern if you choose to implement or must implement a try/finally block, because your programming language doesn't support a using statement but does allow direct calls to the Dispose method.
See also
Cleaning Up Unmanaged Resources
using Statement (C# Reference)
Using Statement (Visual Basic)



