How do I properly clean up Excel interop objects?

Question

I'm using the Excel interop in C# (ApplicationClass) and have placed the following code in my finally clause:

while (System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(excelSheet) != 0) { }
excelSheet = null;
GC.Collect();
GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();

Although this kind of works, the Excel.exe process is still in the background even after I close Excel. It is only released once my application is manually closed.

What am I doing wrong, or is there an alternative to ensure interop objects are properly disposed of?

Answer 1

UPDATE: Added C# code, and link to Windows Jobs

I spent sometime trying to figure out this problem, and at the time XtremeVBTalk was the most active and responsive. Here is a link to my original post, Closing an Excel Interop process cleanly, even if your application crashes. Below is a summary of the post, and the code copied to this post.

• Closing the Interop process with Application.Quit() and Process.Kill() works for the most part, but fails if the applications crashes catastrophically. I.e. if the app crashes, the Excel process will still be running loose.
• The solution is to let the OS handle the cleanup of your processes through Windows Job Objects using Win32 calls. When your main application dies, the associated processes (i.e. Excel) will get terminated as well.

I found this to be a clean solution because the OS is doing real work of cleaning up. All you have to do is register the Excel process.

Windows Job Code

Wraps the Win32 API Calls to register Interop processes.

public enum JobObjectInfoType
{
    AssociateCompletionPortInformation = 7,
    BasicLimitInformation = 2,
    BasicUIRestrictions = 4,
    EndOfJobTimeInformation = 6,
    ExtendedLimitInformation = 9,
    SecurityLimitInformation = 5,
    GroupInformation = 11
}

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES
{
    public int nLength;
    public IntPtr lpSecurityDescriptor;
    public int bInheritHandle;
}

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
struct JOBOBJECT_BASIC_LIMIT_INFORMATION
{
    public Int64 PerProcessUserTimeLimit;
    public Int64 PerJobUserTimeLimit;
    public Int16 LimitFlags;
    public UInt32 MinimumWorkingSetSize;
    public UInt32 MaximumWorkingSetSize;
    public Int16 ActiveProcessLimit;
    public Int64 Affinity;
    public Int16 PriorityClass;
    public Int16 SchedulingClass;
}

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
struct IO_COUNTERS
{
    public UInt64 ReadOperationCount;
    public UInt64 WriteOperationCount;
    public UInt64 OtherOperationCount;
    public UInt64 ReadTransferCount;
    public UInt64 WriteTransferCount;
    public UInt64 OtherTransferCount;
}

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
struct JOBOBJECT_EXTENDED_LIMIT_INFORMATION
{
    public JOBOBJECT_BASIC_LIMIT_INFORMATION BasicLimitInformation;
    public IO_COUNTERS IoInfo;
    public UInt32 ProcessMemoryLimit;
    public UInt32 JobMemoryLimit;
    public UInt32 PeakProcessMemoryUsed;
    public UInt32 PeakJobMemoryUsed;
}

public class Job : IDisposable
{
    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
    static extern IntPtr CreateJobObject(object a, string lpName);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    static extern bool SetInformationJobObject(IntPtr hJob, JobObjectInfoType infoType, IntPtr lpJobObjectInfo, uint cbJobObjectInfoLength);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern bool AssignProcessToJobObject(IntPtr job, IntPtr process);

    private IntPtr m_handle;
    private bool m_disposed = false;

    public Job()
    {
        m_handle = CreateJobObject(null, null);

        JOBOBJECT_BASIC_LIMIT_INFORMATION info = new JOBOBJECT_BASIC_LIMIT_INFORMATION();
        info.LimitFlags = 0x2000;

        JOBOBJECT_EXTENDED_LIMIT_INFORMATION extendedInfo = new JOBOBJECT_EXTENDED_LIMIT_INFORMATION();
        extendedInfo.BasicLimitInformation = info;

        int length = Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(JOBOBJECT_EXTENDED_LIMIT_INFORMATION));
        IntPtr extendedInfoPtr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(length);
        Marshal.StructureToPtr(extendedInfo, extendedInfoPtr, false);

        if (!SetInformationJobObject(m_handle, JobObjectInfoType.ExtendedLimitInformation, extendedInfoPtr, (uint)length))
            throw new Exception(string.Format("Unable to set information.  Error: {0}", Marshal.GetLastWin32Error()));
    }

    #region IDisposable Members

    public void Dispose()
    {
        Dispose(true);
        GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
    }

    #endregion

    private void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
        if (m_disposed)
            return;

        if (disposing) {}

        Close();
        m_disposed = true;
    }

    public void Close()
    {
        Win32.CloseHandle(m_handle);
        m_handle = IntPtr.Zero;
    }

    public bool AddProcess(IntPtr handle)
    {
        return AssignProcessToJobObject(m_handle, handle);
    }

}

Note about Constructor code

• In the constructor, the info.LimitFlags = 0x2000; is called. 0x2000 is the JOB_OBJECT_LIMIT_KILL_ON_JOB_CLOSE enum value, and this value is defined by MSDN as:

Causes all processes associated with the job to terminate when the last handle to the job is closed.

Extra Win32 API Call to get the Process ID (PID)

    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    public static extern uint GetWindowThreadProcessId(IntPtr hWnd, out uint lpdwProcessId);

Using the code

    Excel.Application app = new Excel.ApplicationClass();
    Job job = new Job();
    uint pid = 0;
    Win32.GetWindowThreadProcessId(new IntPtr(app.Hwnd), out pid);
    job.AddProcess(Process.GetProcessById((int)pid).Handle);

Answer 2

I cant believe this problem has haunted the world for 5 years.... If you have created an application, you need to shut it down first before removing the link.

objExcel = new Excel.Application();  
objBook = (Excel.Workbook)(objExcel.Workbooks.Add(Type.Missing)); 

when closing

objBook.Close(true, Type.Missing, Type.Missing); 
objExcel.Application.Quit();
objExcel.Quit(); 

When you new an excel application, it opens a excel program in the background. You need to command that excel program to quit before you release the link because that excel program is not part of your direct control. Therefore, it will stay open if the link is released!

Good programming everyone~~

Answer 3

The two dots rule did not work for me. In my case I created a method to clean my resources as follows:

private static void Clean()
{
    workBook.Close();
    Marshall.ReleaseComObject(workBook);
    excel.Quit();
    CG.Collect();
    CG.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
}

Answer 4

I think that some of that is just the way that the framework handles Office applications, but I could be wrong. On some days, some applications clean up the processes immediately, and other days it seems to wait until the application closes. In general, I quit paying attention to the details and just make sure that there aren't any extra processes floating around at the end of the day.

Also, and maybe I'm over simplifying things, but I think you can just...

objExcel = new Excel.Application();
objBook = (Excel.Workbook)(objExcel.Workbooks.Add(Type.Missing));
DoSomeStuff(objBook);
SaveTheBook(objBook);
objBook.Close(false, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
objExcel.Quit();

Like I said earlier, I don't tend to pay attention to the details of when the Excel process appears or disappears, but that usually works for me. I also don't like to keep Excel processes around for anything other than the minimal amount of time, but I'm probably just being paranoid on that.

Answer 5

To add to reasons why Excel does not close, even when you create direct refrences to each object upon read, creation, is the 'For' loop.

For Each objWorkBook As WorkBook in objWorkBooks 'local ref, created from ExcelApp.WorkBooks to avoid the double-dot
   objWorkBook.Close 'or whatever
   FinalReleaseComObject(objWorkBook)
   objWorkBook = Nothing
Next 

'The above does not work, and this is the workaround:

For intCounter As Integer = 1 To mobjExcel_WorkBooks.Count
   Dim objTempWorkBook As Workbook = mobjExcel_WorkBooks.Item(intCounter)
   objTempWorkBook.Saved = True
   objTempWorkBook.Close(False, Type.Missing, Type.Missing)
   FinalReleaseComObject(objTempWorkBook)
   objTempWorkBook = Nothing
Next

Answer 6

Excel does not quit because your application is still holding references to COM objects.

I guess you're invoking at least one member of a COM object without assigning it to a variable.

For me it was the excelApp.Worksheets object which I directly used without assigning it to a variable:

Worksheet sheet = excelApp.Worksheets.Open(...);
...
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(sheet);

I didn't know that internally C# created a wrapper for the Worksheets COM object which didn't get released by my code (because I wasn't aware of it) and was the cause why Excel was not unloaded.

I found the solution to my problem on this page, which also has a nice rule for the usage of COM objects in C#:

Never use two dots with COM objects.

---

So with this knowledge the right way of doing the above is:

Worksheets sheets = excelApp.Worksheets; // <-- The important part
Worksheet sheet = sheets.Open(...);
...
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(sheets);
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(sheet);

POST MORTEM UPDATE:

I want every reader to read this answer by Hans Passant very carefully as it explains the trap I and lots of other developers stumbled into. When I wrote this answer years ago I didn't know about the effect the debugger has to the garbage collector and drew the wrong conclusions. I keep my answer unaltered for the sake of history but please read this link and don't go the way of "the two dots": Understanding garbage collection in .NET and Clean up Excel Interop Objects with IDisposable