.NET for Java Developers: Migrating to C#

1.4. Memory Management

One of the key features of modern execution environments such as the JVM and the CLR is automatic memory management through garbage collection. The CLR provides a garbage collector (GC), similar to that of the JVM, which runs in the background and releases locked-up memory by freeing and destroying unused objects. The runtime uses metadata to locate and load classes, lay out instances in memory, resolve method invocations, generate native code, enforce security, and set runtime context boundaries. The runtime automatically handles object layout and manages references to objects, releasing them when they are no longer being used. Objects whose lifetimes are managed in this way are called managed data. Automatic memory management ...