Garbage Collection

[Ankur Gupta]

Q29 from javaprepare.com
29.At what stage in the following method does the string "abc" becomes available for garbage collection. Select the one correct answer.

 void method X()  
 { 
   String r = new String("abc");
   String s = "abc";
   r = r+1; //1
   r = null; //2
   s = s + r; //3
 } //4
                              

A.Before statement labelled 1
B.Before statement labelled 2
C.Before statement labelled 3
D.Before statement labelled 4
E.Never.
The answer is D. Should it not be C ? i.e. Before stmt 3.

[Ajith Kallambella]

Ankur,
The same question has been discussed here

Ajith

[Ankur Gupta]

Oops! Need to be more regular at the ranch, I guess!!

[Anonymous]

void method X()
{
String r = new String("abc");
String s = "abc";
r = r+1; //1
r = null; //2
s = s + r; //3
} //4
Hi ankur which String u r talking about is the String present in Heap memory that was created using statement String r = new String("abc");
Well if this is the string u r expecting it would be eligible for garabage collection at anytime after line marked with //1 is executed.
if u r talking about the String created in the String pool with
String s = "abc" ..Then it would be available for garbage collection only after class in which this method is declared is unloaded.