anilbachi question?

[malathi latha]

Hello all,
this question is from http://www.anilbachi.8m.com mocks please can any one guess the solution?

class X extends object {
String str;
void setstr() {
for(int i=0;i<5;i++){
str=Integer.toString(i);
}
}
}
after setstr has been executed,how many String objects are eligible for garbage collection.
a).none
b).5
c).4
d).1

[Lokesh Mahajan]

Hello Dear

I think the answer is c ie. 4 .
the thing is like this String str is declared out side the function body. so when str is created by means of for loop ,earlier one created is getting garbage collected,this keep on happning till i= 4, after this for loop getsa terminated, and the only reference left is when the value of i is 4.
which is not garbage collected.
lokesh mahajan

[Venkat Ramanan]

I feel it is 5 because, the number of iteration the for loop runs is 5... correct me if i am wrong;

[mahesh deshpande]

The result of the integer.tostring(i) is stored in the same variable str, which is updated every time. So there is nothing for garbage collection.The answer should be none. Correct me if I am wrong.

[Manfred Leonhardt]

HI,
I believe the answer is technically: 4 are available for garbage collection. Why?
1. str = "0" inside loop
2. str = "1" inside loop
3. str = "2" inside loop
4. str = "3" inside loop
5. str = "4" inside loop
Since str still points to "4" that is not eligible for garbage collection. That would not be the case if str was local variable but it is an instance variable in this case.
Therefore from the line numbers above we can see that there are 4 String objects ready for garbage collection:
"0",
"1",
"2", and
"3".
Regards,
Manfred.
[This message has been edited by Manfred Leonhardt (edited February 16, 2001).]

[shabbir zakir]

hi!
Is there any code which we can develop by which we can count the numbers of String to be garbage collected. Manually speaking i think the answer is 5. Correct me if i am wrong

[bill bozeman]

I think Manfred is correct. There are 5 strings created, but the last one, "4", is still be referenced by the variable str. So it cannot be collected yet.
Bill

[venkatesan Rajagopalan]

With each iteration of for statement, a new object is
created and assigned to Str. When a new object is
assigned to Str, the previous object that was referenced
by the Str is not accessible by Str or by any object or
variable for that matter. Hence the object become
eligible for garbage collection.
In the above question, five interations indeed takes
places and breaks at that. Hence the objects are
garbage collected upto the penultimate object i.e 4
objects are garbage collected.
venkat

[venkatesan Rajagopalan]

i should admit I was late in replying and before which replies had already been posted.
venkat
[This message has been edited by venkatesan Rajagopalan (edited February 16, 2001).]

[mohit raju]

Hi all,
this is a good question and I think theanswer is 5.
mohit.

[Wong KK]

I think the answer is 4.
The answer will be 5 if str is a local variable of setstr method or a local variable of the for loop.
Or if the object reference to class X is eligible to be collected. (But this time, the answer may be 6)

[Waseem Akhtar]

well man i think 4th one;

[Waseem Akhtar]

sorry man i thought that 4th one
have
answer 4.
i go for (c).. 4

[shabbir zakir]

hi!
How it can be four? please explain.Detail explanation will be much better.

[Nayyer Kamran]

class Xx extends Object {
String str;
void setstr() {
for(int i=0;i<5;i++){
str=Integer.toString(i);
}
}
public static void main(String args[]){
Xx obj = new Xx();
obj.setstr();
System.out.println(obj.str);//Here I am accessing the var and geting
//4 as output so it means that the last string has yet not gone for
//garbage collection
// so the answer is c.
}
}
//reply if I am wrong

[Deepak Jindal]

I too think the answer is 4.
I remember I have seen the similar post before also and encountered the same question in mock exams also. The answer is 4 according to them.

[malathi latha]

Hi all ,
thankyou for your responses, please a better explanation is anticipated here.
Thankyou.

[mohit raju]

Hi wong,
yes the answer is 4
thankyou.

[Noel Hinders]

Hi all,
can anyone explain when are objects eligible for garbage collection? In the above example if the objects are reassigned then if the older ones are eligible for garbage collection then the answer should be 4
Please correct my concept of garbage collection.
Can we know programatically of how many objects are eleigible for garbage collection???
Noel

[Joseph Russell]

This has been a hot topic in the past. Click here to follow a related link...
http://www.javaranch.com/ubb/Forum24/HTML/008155.html
and here Peter Tran show's how to solve this question programatically: http://www.javaranch.com/ubb/Forum24/HTML/007585.html
Joe

[This message has been edited by Joseph Russell (edited February 20, 2001).]