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]

Tony Van wrote:

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

How can I tell if I have it?
Especially the last one: you probably can't.
How can I code to avoid it?

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]

Thanks for a clear explanation Dik.

Need to look thru my code more carefully.