Create then dispose Images on the Fly

[bflosabre91]

I read in images from a file location to a collection of bitmapimages and use the collection of bitmapimages as the Image.Source for image controls that i display on screen. However i seem to be getting bad memory leaks as the garbage collector does not seem to realize its time to dispose of the Image objects after they should be.

 Dim x As Int32 = 0
                For x = 1 To pictureCount
                    Dim picbox As New Image
                    Dim rand As Int32
                    Do
                        rand = RandomNumber(collectionPictures.Count, 1)
                    Loop While PicExists(rand) = True
                    picbox.Source = CType(collectionPictures.Item(rand), ImageSource)
                    picbox.Margin = New Thickness(5)
                    picbox.Name = "picBox" & rand.ToString

                    collectionUsedPics.Add(rand)
                    Grid.SetRow(picbox, picRow)
                    Grid.SetColumn(picbox, picCol)
                    Grid.SetRowSpan(picbox, 1)
                    If picCol = 1 Then
                        Grid.SetRowSpan(picbox, 2)
                        picbox.MaxHeight = 650
                    End If
                    If picCol = 1 And picRow = 1 Then
                        Grid.SetRow(picbox, 1)
                        Grid.SetColumn(picbox, 2)
                    End If
                    gridContent.Children.Add(picbox)
                    picCol = picCol + 1
                    If picCol > 2 Then
                        picCol = 0
                        picRow = picRow + 1
                    End If
                Next x
                Container.Children.Add(gridContent)

i clear all the children in all the containers and it still doesnt dispose of the images, so the memory builds up to like 1000mb... anyone have any idea? thanks

[mendhak]

An object will not be disposed as long as a reference to that object exists somewhere. Even if it's a reference to a reference to a reference to a reference of an object, that counts.

I understand that this is a part of your code, so are there references to the images elsewhere? How are you clearing and disposing?

[jmcilhinney]

It's also important to understand the difference between disposal and garbage collection. While they are related they are very much not the same thing. Memory leaks have nothing to do with disposal. Disposing an object means releasing its system resources. In this context, memory is not considered a system resource. We're talking about file handles and the like. You can, and should, dispose any object that supports it when you're finished with that object. The object still exists in memory after being disposed but is generally unusable. Once all references to an object have been removed, then that object is eligible for garbage collection. When the GC comes to clean up an object, i.e. reclaim the memory it occupies, it will first finalise the object if it hasn't already been disposed.

[bflosabre91]

i believe the problem was similar to what mendhak was saying. i used a collection of images to create the controls and thats when the garbage collector would not clean up the images i created so the memory would build. so i just read the files directly from the hd and now the the garbage collector does clean the image up after it is not being displayed. Thanks for your input.