CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netgarbage-collection
abenci
abenci

Reputation: 8675

How do I free memory in .NET?

How do I free memory in .NET? Is it correct to do:

myArray = null;
GC.Collect();

or

myArray = Nothing
GC.Collect()

Or should I always wait for garbage collection to occur when the OS is ready to?

Thanks.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 583

Answers (4)

Pratik
Pratik

Reputation: 11745

Why you should not care, instead relax and keep writing your code beacuse its already taken care by this

Upvotes: 0

Tony Delroy
Tony Delroy

Reputation: 106246

According the MSDN's page on GC.Collect():

All objects, regardless of how long they have been in memory, are considered for collection; however, objects that are referenced in managed code are not collected. Use this method to force the system to try to reclaim the maximum amount of available memory.

This suggests the memory you removed the reference from may be released if there are no other references. Still, you should be aware that the function may take a long time (from a program perspective) to run, so you probably don't want to call it yourself: if you end up trying to do it too often it may do unnecessary redundant work and slow your application down dramatically. If it's beneficial, it should happen soon anyway. If you really want deterministic destruction, consider putting a bit of C++ in and using the "real" heap instead of the GC-ed one.

Upvotes: 0

hallie
hallie

Reputation: 2845

As a best practice, just wait for the GC to collect unused resources. The GC is intelligent enough to know when the collection should occur. Forcing the GC to run costs great price.

Upvotes: 0

Jahan Zinedine
Jahan Zinedine

Reputation: 14874

None of this will do what you want. In managed runtime, releasing memory used by a reference is non-deterministic and it solely depend on when the Garbage Collector runs and with which policy. So for regular types don't do anything, just relax and write your business code.

Upvotes: 4

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