Question

Is the memory from primitive data types (int, char,etc) immediately released once they leave scope, or added to garbage collection for later release?

consider:

For x as integer=0 to 1000 dim y as integer Next 

If this doesn’t add 1000 integers to the garbage collector for clean up later, how does it treat string objects? would this create 1000 strings to clean up later?

For x as integer=0 to 1000 dim y as string='' Next 

How about structures that contain only int,string,etc… data types?

Classes that contain only managed resources?

Answer 1

Okay, with only two answers there’s already misinformation…

• String isn’t a primitive type
• String isn’t a value type
• Value type values aren’t always created on the stack – it depends on where the variable is. If it’s part of a class, it’s stored on the heap with the rest of the data for that object.
• Even local variables can end up on the heap, if they’re captured (in anonymous functions and iterator blocks for example)
• String literals such as ” are interned – they always resolve to the same string. That loop doesn’t actually create any strings.

For more info, see my article on what goes where in .NET memory. You might also want to consider whether it’s important or not.