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Object.Finalize Method

Definition

Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before it is reclaimed by garbage collection.

C#
~Object();

Examples

The following example verifies that the Finalize method is called when an object that overrides Finalize is destroyed. Note that, in a production application, the Finalize method would be overridden to release unmanaged resources held by the object. Also note that the C# example provides a destructor instead of overriding the Finalize method.

C#
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

public class ExampleClass
{
   Stopwatch sw;

   public ExampleClass()
   {
      sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
      Console.WriteLine("Instantiated object");
   }

   public void ShowDuration()
   {
      Console.WriteLine("This instance of {0} has been in existence for {1}",
                        this, sw.Elapsed);
   }

   ~ExampleClass()
   {
      Console.WriteLine("Finalizing object");
      sw.Stop();
      Console.WriteLine("This instance of {0} has been in existence for {1}",
                        this, sw.Elapsed);
   }
}

public class Demo
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      ExampleClass ex = new ExampleClass();
      ex.ShowDuration();
   }
}
// The example displays output like the following:
//    Instantiated object
//    This instance of ExampleClass has been in existence for 00:00:00.0011060
//    Finalizing object
//    This instance of ExampleClass has been in existence for 00:00:00.0036294

For an additional example that overrides the Finalize method, see the GC.SuppressFinalize method.

Remarks

For more information about this API, see Supplemental API remarks for Object.Finalize.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also