How to override a Dispose method with diposedValue being Private?

Question

Hello,

I must add some Dispose code to a class that inherits from a class that already implements IDisposable so I tried to do an Override of the Dispose method but I have not available the disposedValue because it is declared as private.

How can I add the new Dispose statements?

Protected Overridable Sub Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean)
    If Not disposedValue Then
        If disposing Then
           ''# ...
        End If
    End If
    disposedValue = True
End Sub

Thanks in advance!

EXTENDED INFO: I think that I should implement the same logic present at the base class at the inheritor. Am I right?

MORE INFO: I am using the snipet that Vb.Net automatically writes when you declare that a class implements IDisposable.

Answer 1

You could make a separate disposedValue field in the derived class.
However, you should probably name it isDisposed.

Note that all classes in the FCL will not do anything if you call Dispose twice, so there isn't necessarily anything wrong with taking out that logic and disposing multiple times. Obviously, this depends on what you're doing in Dispose; you should check.

Make sure to call MyBase.Dispose(disposing).

Answer 2

Instead of trying to duplicate the base class logic, call MyBase.Dispose(disposing).

Answer 3

Well, the fact that it is private instead of protected probably means you aren't supposed to do that. But if you insist, you could use reflection. Yeah, this is probably the worst possible way to do it:

//(System.Reflection.BindingFlags...)
this.GetType().GetField("_privateVarName", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance).GetValue(this);