Question

Given the following code snippet:

try
{
    var myTxt = "";
    var serializer = new DataContractSerializer(myObject.GetType());
    var memoryStream = new MemoryStream()

    serializer.WriteObject(memoryStream, myObject);
    memoryStream.Position = 0;

    using (var reader = new StreamReader(memoryStream))
    {
        myTxt = reader.ReadToEnd();
    }
    .
    .
    .
}
catch (IOException ioEx)
{
     //log or whatever...        
     throw;
}

Typically I’d have a using statement around my memory stream,
but from my understanding disposing the StreamReader will close the Memory Stream.

So the question is, is there anything REALLY wrong with the above?

Answer 1

I think its fine because MemoryStream doesn’t hold unmanaged resources anyway, but if you wanted to be extra safe you could do this:

var memoryStream = new MemoryStream()
StreamReader reader = null;
try{
    serializer.WriteObject(memoryStream, myObject);

    memoryStream.Position = 0;
    reader = new StreamReader(memoryStream)
    //...
}
finally
{
    if(reader != null)
        reader.Dispose();
    else
        memoryStream.Dispose();
}