jprg

Hi,
If I use a single variable of type Excel.Worksheet to reference Worksheet1, and then change it to Worksheet2, Worksheet3 and so on, is it adequate to simply do "Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(worksheetVariable)" once at the end? Or would I be left with some references still in memory?
In other words, do I need to do a "Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject" before each re-assignment?

Thank you.

Roger_Wgnr

You are just reusing the variable object so you only need the one call.
If you did a Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject when you reassigned it the variable would no longer exist.
Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject releases the object for GC so you can't reuse it.

jo0ls

I would take the "nuke it from orbit" approach and destroy them all before reassignment.

Make sure you check Mike_R's tips here. Oh and he makes a guest star appearance here too.

Anyway, I think you should probably release them whilst you still have the reference to them. There should be no problem reassigning the variable.

Mike Rosenblum

As jo0ls said, it is probably technically better to release your worksheet object when you are done with it and still have a reference to it, before moving on to the next object.

That said, as a practical matter, I find this style of coding to be way too cumbersome, and you are likely to forget to do it somewhere anyway at some point -- maybe lots of points!

In my own coding, I do not bother releasing each and every object as I use them and I never get a hang. Within your cleanup/shutdown section, the key is, to call GC.Collect() and then GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers() before releasing the objects to which you do have a reference, and then release your remaining objects via Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject() in order from least important object to the most important (for example, Range objects first, then Worksheets, then Workbooks, and then finally your Application object).

Take a look at the two posts that jo0ls listed, which go into how to do this in detail. I think that the StackOverflow Article on Cleaning up COM Objects is probably the most on point here, but also read the Automating Office Programs with VB.NET article that jo0ls mentioned.

If you follow this approach, your code can be a lot cleaner and you shoudn't have any hangs.