Dispose or Close\Nothing????

[FRANDAZZO]

Question -

What is the difference between destroying a db conn object by using the dispose method or destroying it by using the following code:

db.close
db = nothing

Also, does it make a difference???

Thanks in advance,
Frandazzo

 

[chiph]

If the object has a .close method, use it.

If the object implements IDisposable, call .Dispose if it's declared as public. Sometimes .Dispose is marked as protected (internal) and you can't call it, but make the effort if you can.

The difference is objects that contain unmanaged resources (network connections, file handles, database connections) typically implement IDisposable in order to release those unmanaged resources. Failing to call .Dispose results in the resource not being released until the next garbage collection cycle. In the case of things like Database connections, where you may be paying license fees on the number of active connections, that can get expensive. Or... other parts of your code will break because they can't gain access to a resource. A common error is not to dispose of file handles -- if you try and re-open the file, it will fail because .NET hasn't really closed it yet (GC cycle hasn't run yet).

Chip H.


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