Question

I’ve read conflicting opinions as to whether every BeginInvoke() has to be matched by an EndInvoke(). Are there any leaks or other problems associated with NOT calling EndInvoke()?

Answer 1

Delegate.EndInvoke is documented as a thou shalt call this (i.e. necessary – else leaks happen) – from msdn:

Important Note

No matter which technique you use, always call EndInvoke to complete your asynchronous call.

Control.EndInvoke is OK to ignore for fire-and-forget methods – from msdn:

You can call EndInvoke to retrieve the return value from the delegate, if neccesary, but this is not required.

However – if you are using Delegate.BeginInvoke and don’t want the result, consider using ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem instead – it’ll make life a lot easier, and avoid the pain of IAsyncResult etc.