Question

I keep getting a ‘System.OutOfMemoryException’ thrown at the code below. I can’t figure out where the memory leak is and it would be a great help if someone could explain what I am doing wrong. Thanks!

lock ((_tabs))
{
    System.IO.StreamReader sr = null;
    System.IO.MemoryStream ms = null;
    try
    {
        Type[] t = { typeof(tsgPublicDecs.tsgClsTab) };
        System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer srl = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(ArrayList), t);
        ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
        srl.Serialize(ms, _tabs);
        ms.Seek(0, 0);
        sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(ms);
        return sr.ReadToEnd();
    }
    finally
    {
        if (((sr != null)))
        {
            sr.Close();
            sr.Dispose();
        }
        if (((ms != null)))
        {
            ms.Close();
            ms.Dispose();
        }
    }
}

EDIT: To Answer a few of the questions:

• _tabs is not being populated with anything (Which brings up many other questions why its even being used but I’ll need to ask the developer who wrote it for that)
• The line throwing the error is ‘srl.Serialize(ms, _tabs);’
• This error is random and I’ve been unable to duplicate it myself but letting it run over a few days this will be thrown. Because of this I am unable (don’t know how) to get any information beyond the error being thrown.

EDIT 2:
Thanks for all the input. Adding usings and looking for other possible memory leaks seems like the best approach. Its great to see how quickly people can lend a hand!

Answer 1

It’s screaming for a using block or two.

lock ((_tabs))
{
        Type[] t = { typeof(tsgPublicDecs.tsgClsTab) };
        System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer srl = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(ArrayList), t);

        using ( System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream())
        {  
           srl.Serialize(ms, _tabs);
           ms.Seek(0, 0);

           using (System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(ms))
           {
            return sr.ReadToEnd();
           }
        }


}