IDisposable Interface

Namespace: System
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Implements: None

Represents a mechanism for releasing unmanaged resources.

Syntax


                    public interface IDisposable

Methods

Dispose()


                    void Dispose()

Performs application-defined tasks associated with freeing, releasing, or resetting unmanaged resources.

Remarks

The IDisposable interface is used to define a single method, Dispose, that can be called to release managed and unmanaged resources. Resources that are not managed by the garbage collector (such as file handles, database connections, or graphics handles) must be explicitly released.

Objects that implement IDisposable should be disposed of when they are no longer needed to prevent resource leaks. The common way to ensure that Dispose is called is by using a using statement (in C#) or a Using...End Using block (in Visual Basic).


                    using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader("file.txt")) {
                        // Use the reader
                        Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadLine());
                    } // reader.Dispose() is automatically called here

Requirements

Platform: Supported in .NET Framework 2.0, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, .NET Framework 4, .NET Framework 4.5, .NET Framework 4.6, .NET Framework 4.7, .NET Framework 4.8, .NET Core 1.0, .NET Core 1.1, .NET Core 2.0, .NET Core 2.1, .NET Core 2.2, .NET Standard 1.0, .NET Standard 1.1, .NET Standard 1.2, .NET Standard 1.3, .NET Standard 1.4, .NET Standard 1.5, .NET Standard 1.6, .NET Standard 2.0, .NET Standard 2.1, .NET 5, and .NET 6 and later.