What's memory leak?

[Tony Van]

I think I know what it is-- objects not being set to nothing
when the program is finished with them

How can I tell if I have it?

How can I code to avoid it?

Thanks

[Dikkie Dik]

Re: What's memory leak?

Tony Van wrote:[color=blue]
> I think I know what it is-- objects not being set to nothing
> when the program is finished with them[/color]

That's one. If you have circular references (two objects pointing to
each other, but your program doesn't point to either of them anymore),
the objects are not automatically cleared. This can result in a
"hanging" application, because VB is apparently waiting for either of
them to be set to nothing.

If you are working with API calls, a memory leak can also be a memory
structure generated by the API call that is not properly "handed back"
to the operating system.
[color=blue]
>
> How can I tell if I have it?[/color]

Especially the last one: you probably can't.[color=blue]
>
> How can I code to avoid it?[/color]

Avoid circular references, or implement some sort of Dispose method. Be
aware that if a form has an object variable that contains an object
pointing to controls on that form, VB regards it as a circular reference.
You can also use close/unload/terminate events to trigger disposal code.

Best regards

[Tony Van]

Re: What's memory leak?

Thanks for a clear explanation Dik.

Need to look thru my code more carefully.