Question

I was testing a class that uses weak references to ensure that objects were able to be garbage collected and I found that objects in a List<> were never collected even if the list is no longer referenced. This is also the case with a simple array. The following code snippet shows a simple test that fails.

class TestDestructor
{
    public static bool DestructorCalled;

    ~TestDestructor()
    {
        DestructorCalled = true;
    }
}

[Test]
public void TestGarbageCollection()
{
    TestDestructor testDestructor = new TestDestructor();

    var array = new object[] { testDestructor };
    array = null;

    testDestructor = null;

    GC.Collect();
    GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();

    Assert.IsTrue(TestDestructor.DestructorCalled);
}

Leaving out the initialisation of the array causes the test to pass.

Why is the object in the array not getting garbage collected?

Answer 1

Another edit: result will be always false if the array is defined in the Main()-Method-Scope, but will be true if defined in the Class-Test-Scope. Maybe thats not a bad thing.

class TestDestructor
{
    public TestDestructor()
    {
        testList = new List<string>();
    }

    public static volatile bool DestructorCalled;

    ~TestDestructor()
    {
        DestructorCalled = true;
    }

    public string xy = "test";

    public List<string> testList;

}

class Test
{
    private static object[] myArray;

    static void Main()
    {
        NewMethod();            
        myArray = null;

        GC.Collect();
        GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
        Console.WriteLine(TestDestructor.DestructorCalled);
        Console.In.ReadToEnd();
    }

    private static void NewMethod()
    {
        TestDestructor testDestructor = new TestDestructor() { xy = "foo" };
        testDestructor.testList.Add("bar");
        myArray = new object[] { testDestructor };
        Console.WriteLine(myArray.Length);
    }
}