Try/Finally block vs calling dispose?

Question

Is there any difference between these two code samples and if not, why does using exist?

StreamWriter writer;
try {
    writer = new StreamWrite         


        

Answer 1

They're not entirely the same. The try/finally block does not protect against silly mistakes.

StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(...);
try {
  ...
  writer = new StreamWriter(...);
  ...
} finally {
  writer.Dispose();
}

Note that only the second writer gets disposed. In contrast,

using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(...)) {
  ...
  writer = new StreamWriter(...);
  ...
}

will give a compile-time error.