Objects eligible for GC

[Sarikaa Bhatnagar]

Hi,

Can anyone pls help. How many objects are eligible for GC when System.gc() is invoked() in the following code:


class MyClass{
public void finalize()
{System.out.println("finalize");}

class Test{
private static void f (MyClass[] array){
array[0]=null; //line 1
array[1]=array[0]; //line 2
array[2]=array[1]; //line 3
array=null; /line 4
}

public static void main(String agrs[]){
MyClass[] array = new MyClass[4];
for (int i=0; i<array.length;i++)
array[i]=new MyClass();
f(array);
System.gc();
}

}//end class




correct answer is 3 whereas i feel it should be 4( the objects at line 1,2,3 and 4). In the method f() 3 out of 4 elements are made null and the array refernce itself is made null (at line4) then how come only 3 objects are eligible for GC.

thanks,
Sarika.

[Jason Kim]

That's because Java is 'pass-by-value' NOT 'pass-by-reference'.

When array variable main() is passed into method f(), a new local array variable is created. They point to same array but are two different reference variables.

Hence doing array = null in f() will only change what local array variable points to and does not change the array variable in main().

Hope this helps.

[Sarikaa Bhatnagar]

HI,

this is exactly what i understand and this is what is causing confusion.
When a copy of array is passed to f() then i believe there are totol 5 objects. 1 array reference itself and 4 its internal objects. Now when 3 objecs and the array ref itself is set to null - that makes the count 4 for objects eligible for collection.

I understand that the main() array is still there and still pointing to the original array.

Please explain!

[Jason Kim]

Originally posted by Sarikaa Bhatnagar:
HI,

this is exactly what i understand and this is what is causing confusion.
When a copy of array is passed to f() then i believe there are totol 5 objects.

Please explain!

Sorry maybe I wasn't clear enough.

The whole array does NOT get copied across. It's only a reference variable
that is getting copied. So there is only ever one array existing and this is created in main().

 int arrayVar                =            new int[3];
 (reference varable)  < points to >    ( actual array of 3 ints)
 

The array variable arrayVar is only a reference or handle to the
array object. The variable contains some sort of
address that identifies where the actual array exist in memory.

Hope this helps.

[ravi satti]

In main method we have created totally 5 objects.
1 array object and 4 MyClass objects.
After the call to f(array);, 3 of the MyClass objects doesn't have any reference.
Only two objects have references. The array object itself(through the reference 'array') and one MyClass object(through the reference 'array[3]').
So those 3 objects will be (eligible for) garbage collected after the call to f(array);.