Question

Based on the documentation (MSDN: link), it is clear that one should use the IDisposable pattern when implementing a finalizer.

But do you need to implement a finalizer if you implement IDisposable (so as to provide a deterministic way of disposing the object), and you dont have any unmanaged resources to clean up?

As I see it, if the class has only managed resources and if you dont call Dispose, the managed resources will automatically get cleaned up by the GC and hence no need to implement the finalizer. Am I wrong?

Also, what if I am using my Dispose method to clean up event handlers. As Dispose wont automatically get called by the GC, should I implement a Finalizer, to ensure that eventhandlers get unwired?

Answer 1

No, you do not need to implement a finalizer if you have a class that implements IDisposable (that is if you have implemented the pattern correctly, and that you only have managed resources to dispose of).

_{(If you do, it can actually affect the lifetime of your object, as objects with finalizers get added to the finalization queue in the GC and can live longer than they need to – this can be a problem if your objects are large.)}