Is it possible to force the use of “using” for disposable classes?

Question

I need to force the use of \"using\" to dispose a new instance of a class.

public class MyClass : IDisposable
{
   ...
}

using(MyClass obj = new MyClass())          


        

Answer 1

You should look into RAII, which is a technique that ensures that the acquired resources will be properly disposed.

What I mean is that if you can't force the Dispose method to be called (through using or directly), you can put its content inside another method that will be called, such as the destructor.

It is a common pattern to implement IDisposable as below:

// Implement IDisposable.
// Do not make this method virtual.
// A derived class should not be able to override this method.
public void Dispose()
{
    Dispose(true);
    // This object will be cleaned up by the Dispose method.
    // Therefore, you should call GC.SupressFinalize to
    // take this object off the finalization queue 
    // and prevent finalization code for this object
    // from executing a second time.
    GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
}

// Dispose(bool disposing) executes in two distinct scenarios.
// If disposing equals true, the method has been called directly
// or indirectly by a user's code. Managed and unmanaged resources
// can be disposed.
// If disposing equals false, the method has been called by the 
// runtime from inside the finalizer and you should not reference 
// other objects. Only unmanaged resources can be disposed.
private void Dispose(bool disposing)
{
    // Check to see if Dispose has already been called.
    if(!this.disposed)
    {
        // If disposing equals true, dispose all managed 
        // and unmanaged resources.
        if(disposing)
        {
            // Dispose managed resources.
            component.Dispose();
        }

        // Call the appropriate methods to clean up 
        // unmanaged resources here.
        // If disposing is false, 
        // only the following code is executed.

        // TODO: write code
    }
    disposed = true;         
}

// Use C# destructor syntax for finalization code.
// This destructor will run only if the Dispose method 
// does not get called.
// It gives your base class the opportunity to finalize.
// Do not provide destructors in types derived from this class.
~ClassName()
{
    // Do not re-create Dispose clean-up code here.
    // Calling Dispose(false) is optimal in terms of
    // readability and maintainability.
    Dispose(false);
}

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.gc.suppressfinalize.aspx