How to Create a Disposable class

Question

I have this 'PlayerClass' class and every time I instantiate it I need to dispose of it, including the fields inside that class. Is there a way to do it? This is my class:

internal class PlayerClass 
{
    public WindowsMediaPlayer _wplayer;
}

How do I get to dispose of the class after using it? I have tried to find a way on the internet but none of them are working after testing it.

I've tried this:

internal class PlayerClass : IDisposable
{
    public WindowsMediaPlayer _wplayer;
    public void Dispose()
    {
        Dispose(true);
        GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
    }
    
    /// <summary>
    /// Is this instance disposed?
    /// </summary>
    protected bool Disposed { get; private set; }
    
    /// <summary>
    /// Dispose worker method. See http://coding.abel.nu/2012/01/disposable
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="disposing">Are we disposing? 
    /// Otherwise we're finalizing.</param>
    protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
        Disposed = true;
    }
}

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

It looks as if you're implementing IDisposable just for the heck of it which is not necessary for managed code. The garbage collector will automatically clean up behind you.

You may need to clarify in your post why you are implementing IDisposable.

However I believe your mistake is that Dispose() is not automatically called by the garbage collector. If you do implement IDisposable you must make sure that the code using your class either instantiates inside a using() statement or manually calls .Dispose. Otherwise your dispose method will never fire.

using(var player = new PlayerClass()){
    // Do something with player
    // player.Dispose() is called automatically when you exit this using statement.
}

Since you're relying on the caller to make sure Dispose is called you may also want to look into a SafeHandle (preferred) or Finalize.

Because the IDisposable.Dispose implementation is called by the consumer of a type when the resources owned by an instance are no longer needed, you should either wrap the managed object in a SafeHandle (the recommended alternative), or you should override Object.Finalize to free unmanaged resources in the event that the consumer forgets to call Dispose.

Source: IDisposable Interface

Using Statement https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/keywords/using-statement