Releasing memory for DataTables

[SeanGrebey]

I have a service that is pulling alot of records from a SQL Server table in a DataSet. This process takes up alot of memory, which is to be expected. But when the process is finished, I am clearing all the data I thought with:

MyDataSet.Tables("MyTable1").Rows.Clear()
MyDataSet.Tables("MyTable2").Rows.Clear()
MyDataSet.Tables("MyTable3").Rows.Clear()

But I'm monitoring the memory the process is doing and this isn't freeing the memory. Is there something I need to do to flush the memory?

[SeanGrebey]

Anybody?

[nemaroller]

The GC will free it when it gets to it... (when the framework decides it needs more memory or has spare time). You are just stating that data isnt need anymore, so when big old GC comes along, it will free that memory.

If you truly do not need the tables, you should probably remove the table from the dataset..

[SeanGrebey]

I will still need the table for the next iteration in the service, I just need to clear it and load it with the next generation of data. Thanks for the input though. Maybe if I GC.Collect() it will clean up the memory for me?

[SeanGrebey]

Hmmmm....GC.Collect() didn't really help either.

[SeanGrebey]

Help!

[nemaroller]

You don't need help. You're fine.

[SeanGrebey]

If I was fine this would be working and I'd be sitting on the back patio drinking a beer and marinating some Ny Strips.

[Andy]

exactly how much memory is being eaten up? and, is that number increased with each use of the dataset? If it's not a whole whole lot, and it's not affecting performance, i would just not worry about it and rely on the garbage man.

[nemaroller]

Originally posted by SeanGrebey
If I was fine this would be working and I'd be sitting on the back patio drinking a beer and marinating some Ny Strips.

IS your program erroring? If not, you don't have a problem. The framework is reserving that memory. Only the GC will free it for you.

[SeanGrebey]

I'm done with the memory but I still have almost 500 MB of memory tied up that I am no longer using that isn't being released in a timely fashion. That's not really exceptable.

[nemaroller]

Being released to whom?

I could be totally misunderstanding your problem... in which case forgive me for this rationale below:

If I have 2 GB of RAM in my machine, and I run a proc that uses 500mb each time it runs... the framework will probably consume 1.5gb (3 runs), before it decides there's not enough physical memory to continue, so it must collect old objects (datatables in your case).

Now, if the system the app is running on, needs more memory, the GC will be invoked and clean up more often.

But the whole idea of RAM is to make manipulations faster. So the framework is going to devour what is available because nothing else is using that memory, and why should the .NEt framework let it go to waste just sitting there full of 0's....? It should use that memory instead, and it does. You paid for that memory, be happy its being put to good use!

[SeanGrebey]

The problem is that I am getting noticeable slowness in the machine because too much memory is being held on too after i am done using it.

[nemaroller]

Then its your architecture most likely...

How many tables belong to this dataset? How many columns are in each table?

And when you say you need to clear them.... could use just drop the tables and reinstate them?

Try:
Tables.Clear