Question

I am using System.Timers.Timer class in one of the classes in my application. I know that Timer class has Dispose method inherited from the parent Component class that implements IDisposable interface. Instances of the class below are created many times during my application lifecycle; each of them has an instance of Timer class that generates Elapsed events continuously during the class’s lifecycle. Should I implement IDisposable interface in the class that uses Timer class to dispose the timer object? (I have seen code that doesn’t do this at all). I am afraid that some unmanaged resources will not be freed if I use the class below like this:

SomeClass someClass = new SomeClass(); someClass.DoSomething(); someClass = null; 

The class:

using System.Timers;  public class SomeClass {     private Timer m_timer;      public SomeClass()     {                    m_timer = new Timer();         m_timer.Interval = 1000;         m_timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(m_timer_Elapsed);         m_timer.AutoReset = false;         m_timer.Start();                            }      public void DoSomething()     {      }      private void m_timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)     {         try         {             //Do some task         }         catch (Exception ex)         {             //Ignore         }         finally         {             if (m_timer != null)             {                 //Restart the timer                 m_timer.Enabled = true;             }         }     } } 

Answer 1

Generally speaking you should always dispose of disposable resources. I certainly would be looking to in the case you outline above. If you implement IDisposable on the class that implements the timer you can then use the class in a using statement, meaning resources will be explicitly released when your class is disposed.