When and How Should I Force Garbage Collection in .NET?

Understanding and (Rarely) Forcing Garbage Collection in .NET

During technical interviews, you might be asked about forcing garbage collection in .NET. While generally discouraged, there are rare situations where it might be necessary. This article explains when and how to do so, and emphasizes the importance of letting the garbage collector manage memory automatically.

To initiate garbage collection explicitly, use this code:

<code class="language-csharp">GC.Collect();
GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();</code>

GC.Collect() initiates a garbage collection cycle. GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers() ensures all finalizers complete before the collection proceeds, guaranteeing proper resource reclamation for unreferenced objects.

Caution: Manually triggering garbage collection often introduces performance overhead. The .NET garbage collector is highly optimized; manual intervention usually negatively impacts application performance. Avoid this unless absolutely necessary.

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