Destructor

A simple pattern for cleaning up objects and tasks, in 36 lines of code.

API

Destructor.new()

Creates a new destructor.

Destructor:add(item)

Adds an item to be finalized on the next call to destroy. Throws an error if the object's type is unsupported. Returns the item.

Destructor:destroy()

Finalizes items that have been added and removes all items from the Destructor. The finalizers are defined for various types as follows:

• Function: Calls the function.
• Thread: Cancels the thread via task.cancel.
• Instance: Calls :Destroy().
• RBXScriptConnection: Calls :Disconnect().
• table: Calls Destroy, destroy, Disconnect, or DisconnnectAll (i.e. other Destructors, Maids, and custom signal implementations)

Example

local dtor = Destructor.new()

-- Functions
dtor:add(function()
    print("destroying")
end)

-- Instances
local part = dtor:add(Instance.new("Part", workspace))

-- Connections
dtor:add(RunService.Stepped:Connect(function()
    print("foo")
end))

-- Threads
dtor:add(task.spawn(function()
    while true do
        print("bar")
        task.wait()
    end
end))