Destructor (VB.Net and ASP Classic Cross Reference Guide)

In VB.Net you cannot explicitly destroy a managed�object. Instead, the .Net Framework's garbage collector (GC) takes care of destroying all objects. The GC destroys the objects only when necessary. Some situations of necessity are when memory is exhausted or you explicitly call the System.GC.Collect() method. In general, you never need to call System.GC.Collect().

In .Net, a finalizer is used to free non-managed objects such as a file or network resource. In VB.Net, a finalizer is an overridden sub called Finalize. Because you don't know when the garbage collector will call your finalizer, Microsoft recommends you implement the IDisposable interface for non-managed resources and call it's Dispose() method at the appropriate time.

Class Cyborg
� Protected Overrides Sub Finalize() 
��� 'Free non-managed resources here.
��� MyBase.Finalize() 
� End Sub
End Class

 VB.Net Finalizer (Finalize())  

When an object instance is destroyed, ASP calls a special parameter-less sub named Class_Terminate. For example, when the variable falls out of scope. Since you cannot specify parameters for this sub, you also cannot overload it.

To explicitly destroy an object, use Set YourClass = nothing. If the Class object is explicitly destroyed, the client returns with the script engine error details.

When an object instance is created from a class, ASP calls a special sub called Class_Initialize.

Class Cyborg

  Public Sub Class_Terminate

    Response.Write "<br>Class destroyed"
  End Sub
End Class

 ASP Classic Destructor (Class_Terminate)