Microsoft Visual C# 2013 Step by Step

Chapter 14. Using garbage collection and resource management

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Why use the garbage collector?

• Writing destructors

• Exception-safe disposal

• Exception-safe disposal

• Implementing exception-safe disposal

You have seen in earlier chapters how to create variables and objects, and you should understand how memory is allocated when you create variables and objects. (In case you don’t remember, value types are created on the stack, and reference types are allocated memory from the heap.) Computers do not have infinite amounts of memory, so memory must be reclaimed when a variable or an object no longer needs it. Value types are destroyed and their memory reclaimed when they go out of scope. That’s the easy bit. ...