What does the tilde before a function name mean in C#?

by

~ is the destructor

  1. Destructors are invoked automatically, and cannot be invoked explicitly.
  2. Destructors cannot be overloaded. Thus, a class can have, at most, one destructor.
  3. Destructors are not inherited. Thus, a class has no destructors other than the one, which may be declared in it.
  4. Destructors cannot be used with structs. They are only used with classes.
    An instance becomes eligible for destruction when it is no longer possible for any code to use the instance.
  5. Execution of the destructor for the instance may occur at any time after the instance becomes eligible for destruction.
  6. When an instance is destructed, the destructors in its inheritance chain are called, in order, from most derived to least derived.

Finalize

In C#, the Finalize method performs the operations that a standard C++ destructor would do. In C#, you don’t name it Finalize — you use the C++ destructor syntax of placing a tilde ( ~ ) symbol before the name of the class.

Dispose

It is preferable to dispose of objects in a Close() or Dispose() method that can be called explicitly by the user of the class. Finalize (destructor) are called by the GC.

The IDisposable interface tells the world that your class holds onto resources that need to be disposed and provides users a way to release them. If you do need to implement a finalizer in your class, your Dispose method should use the GC.SuppressFinalize() method to ensure that finalization of your instance is suppressed.

What to use?

It is not legal to call a destructor explicitly. Your destructor will be called by the garbage collector. If you do handle precious unmanaged resources (such as file handles) that you want to close and dispose of as quickly as possible, you ought to implement the IDisposable interface.

More Related Contents:

  1. C# Expressional if statements, possible expansion? [closed]
  2. All possible array initialization syntaxes
  3. What is the C# Using block and why should I use it? [duplicate]
  4. C# – Keyword usage virtual+override vs. new
  5. What are Automatic Properties in C# and what is their purpose?
  6. Why are C# 3.0 object initializer constructor parentheses optional?
  7. Why do assignment statements return a value?
  8. What does the ‘=>’ syntax in C# mean?
  9. What does “DateTime?” mean in C#?
  10. Difference between wiring events with and without “new”
  11. LINQ, Where() vs FindAll()
  12. Best way to split string into lines
  13. Using Statement with Generics: using ISet = System.Collections.Generic.ISet
  14. A textbox/richtextbox that has syntax highlighting? [C#] [closed]
  15. In c# what does ‘where T : class’ mean?
  16. What does the tilde mean in an expression? [duplicate]
  17. Why is Main method private?
  18. What’s the false operator in C# good for?
  19. Why prefer Properties to public variables? [duplicate]
  20. C# binary literals
  21. C#: Abstract classes need to implement interfaces?
  22. What does the @ prefix do on string literals in C#
  23. C# using numbers in an enum
  24. Is this pattern matching expression equivalent to not null
  25. The name ‘str’ does not exist in the current context
  26. What’s the difference between ‘int?’ and ‘int’ in C#?
  27. Why can’t we define a variable inside a while loop?
  28. Inline property initialisation and trailing comma
  29. What is it that makes Enum.HasFlag so slow?
  30. The calling thread must be STA, because many UI components require this in WPF [duplicate]

Leave a Comment