Question

I have a line in my C# code that creates a font in order to measure the length of a string:

int width = (int)(myGraphics.MeasureString(text, new Font(myFontName, myFontSize, FontStyle.Bold)).Width);

My question is, when is the new Font() variable disposed? Is it disposed when the form is disposed, or is it immediate?

Answer 1

Font has finalizer declared:

~Font()
{
    this.Dispose(false);
}

When font object created, it’s registered in finalization queue. Such objects are not destroyed (i.e. memory stays allocated) during garbage collection – they destroyed later, when finalizers called (btw finalizer could be never executed). Thus better call Dispose manually or via using statement. In this case font object will be disposed and unregistered from finalization (thus it will be removed from memory during garbage collection):

public void Dispose()
{
    this.Dispose(true);
    GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
}

You can read more about garbage collection and finalization in Jeffrey Richter’s article