Finalizers and Dispose

Question

I\'ve got a class named BackgroundWorker that has a thread constantly running. To turn this thread off, an instance variable named stop to needs to

Answer 1

First off, a severe warning. Don't use a finalizer like you are. You are setting yourself up for some very bad effects if you take locks within a finalizer. Short story is don't do it. Now to the original question.

public void Dispose()
{
    Dispose(true);
    GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
}

/// 

/// Force the background thread to exit.
/// 
protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)
{
    if (disposing)
    {
        lock (this.locker)
        {
            this.stop = true;
        }
    }
}

~BackgroundWorker()
{
    Dispose(false);
}

The only reason to have a finalizer at all is to allow sub-classes to extend and release unmanaged resources. If you don't have subclasses then seal your class and drop the finalizer completely.