Question

I’m using a RTF file as a template for an ASP.NET web application. My VB.NET code reads the file using a StreamReader, replaces some strings, and creates a new Word document with data from the database. My code closes and disposes of the StreamReader. However, when I attempt to upload a revised RTF file to the web server I get an error, ‘Cannot open the file for writing’. So obviously the file remains open long after the ASP.NET page has run.

How can I force the StreamReader to close? Even editing the web.config file to force the web application to restart isn’t enough to kill the lock on this file.

Answer 1

consider using the ‘using’ idiom, also available in VB.net

using(StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(...)) {  } 

the stream will get closed, even if exception is thrown

Consider closing all IDisposable implementations like this