Question

I have a function that fills a DataTable using a SqlDataAdapter

// ...
using (SqlDataAdapter dataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(command))
    try
    {
        dataAdapter.Fill(dataTable);
    }
    catch
    {
        dataTable.Dispose();
        dataTable = null;
    }

Now, I dislike cargo-cult programming, so I would rather not have a try–catch block if it is unnecessary. Is it necessary to Dispose a DataTable that fails to get filled?

Answer 1

No, calling Dispose is not required. Doing so will not deallocate the memory that has been used for the object, and the GC will pick it up at a later point even if you don’t call Dispose. You can read more about this here.