A simple and totally thread-safe implementation of IDisposable

A simple and totally thread-safe implementation of IDisposable, with improved semantics over the Dispose() / Dispose(bool disposing) reference implementation.  Now updated, slightly, after a consult with someone much smarter than me, who suggested a slight improvement: use Thread.VolatileRead in the IsUndisposed method.

Instructions:

Override DisposeResources in derived classes. When this method is called, always release unmanaged resources, and dispose of managed resources only if the disposeManagedResources parameter is true.

 using System;
using System.Threading;

/// <summary>
/// DisposableBase class. Represents an implementation of the IDisposable interface.
/// </summary>
public abstract class DisposableBase : IDisposable
{
    /// <summary>
    /// A value which indicates the disposable state. 0 indicates undisposed, 1 indicates disposing
    /// or disposed.
    /// </summary>
    private int disposableState;

    /// <summary>
    /// Finalizes an instance of the DisposableBase class.
    /// </summary>
    ~DisposableBase()
    {
        // The destructor has been called as a result of finalization, indicating that the object
        // was not disposed of using the Dispose() method. In this case, call the DisposeResources
        // method with the disposeManagedResources flag set to false, indicating that derived classes
        // may only release unmanaged resources.
        this.DisposeResources(false);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets a value indicating whether the object is undisposed.
    /// </summary>
    public bool IsUndisposed
    {
        get
        {
            return Thread.VolatileRead(ref this.disposableState) == 0;
        }
    }

    #region IDisposable Members

    /// <summary>
    /// Performs application-defined tasks associated with disposing of resources.
    /// </summary>
    public void Dispose()
    {
        // Attempt to move the disposable state from 0 to 1. If successful, we can be assured that
        // this thread is the first thread to do so, and can safely dispose of the object.
        if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref this.disposableState, 1, 0) == 0)
        {
            // Call the DisposeResources method with the disposeManagedResources flag set to true, indicating
            // that derived classes may release unmanaged resources and dispose of managed resources.
            this.DisposeResources(true);

            // Suppress finalization of this object (remove it from the finalization queue and
            // prevent the destructor from being called).
            GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
        }
    }

    #endregion IDisposable Members

    /// <summary>
    /// Dispose resources. Override this method in derived classes. Unmanaged resources should always be released
    /// when this method is called. Managed resources may only be disposed of if disposeManagedResources is true.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="disposeManagedResources">A value which indicates whether managed resources may be disposed of.</param>
    protected abstract void DisposeResources(bool disposeManagedResources);
}

Best,

Brian

Comments

• Anonymous
  October 05, 2011
  "Totally Thread safe" is exaggerated. This code doesn't solve the problem of a thread Disposing the object while another thread is executing a method. "Quite Thread safe" probably :-)