Finalizers (Destructors)

A finalizer is a special method on a class that the garbage collector runs right before the object's memory is reclaimed. It looks like a C++ destructor and even uses the same ~ClassName() syntax, but the meaning is very different: the timing is not under your control, the method runs on a dedicated thread, and an object that has one survives at least one extra collection cycle. This chapter covers what finalizers are for, how they actually run, the canonical Dispose plus finalizer pattern for classes that hold unmanaged resources, and why SafeHandle is the recommended replacement in modern C#.