Object lifetime

In C#, the lifetime of an object is the period of time during which it is allocated in memory and available for use by the program. The lifetime of an object is determined by the garbage collector, which is responsible for reclaiming memory that is no longer in use by the program.

When an object is created, memory is allocated for it on the heap. The object remains in memory until it is no longer referenced by any variables or other objects in the program. When the object is no longer referenced, it becomes eligible for garbage collection. The garbage collector periodically checks for objects that are no longer referenced and frees up their memory.

The exact timing of garbage collection is not deterministic and is determined by a variety of factors, including the amount of memory available, the amount of memory in use by the program, and the patterns of memory allocation and deallocation in the program. In general, the garbage collector will only collect objects that are no longer in use, so it is important to ensure that your program does not hold onto objects longer than necessary to avoid unnecessary memory usage.

In addition to garbage collection, C# also supports finalization, which allows an object to perform some cleanup operations before it is garbage collected. Finalization is implemented using a method named Finalize(), which is called automatically by the garbage collector just before the object is collected. The Finalize() method can be used to release any unmanaged resources used by the object, such as file handles or network connections. However, finalization is generally considered to be less reliable than other forms of cleanup, such as the Dispose() pattern, which is a more deterministic way of releasing resources in C#