Problem regarding array & garbage collector

[Rishiraj Bayerd]

Hi,
I have two question....

1.I want to know how garbage collector works on mutable objects(such
asobject of String & Wrapper class) ?

2.For knowing the length of array, we use array.length.... my quetion is what is length ?

thanks

with regards
Rishi

[Satya Maheshwari]

1.I want to know how garbage collector works on mutable objects(such
asobject of String & Wrapper class) ?

I guess you ment 'immutable' here.

2.For knowing the length of array, we use array.length.... my quetion is what is length ?

You said yourself, its the length of the array

[Satya Maheshwari]

On a serious note, I am also curious to know if immutable objects are treated differently for garbage collection(as stings are maintained in a pool)

[Campbell Ritchie]

No, they aren't. All types of object are garbage-collected similarly. Strings have a sort of constant pool for those which exist as literals; since they are in the actual code, they remain "accessible" until the classes they are used in are unloaded (and, I think, until their class loaders are unloaded too).

[Campbell Ritchie]

About arrays: if you are feeling brave go through the Java Language Specification, here.

[Rob Spoor]

Originally posted by Satya Maheshwari:

You said yourself, its the length of the array

Technically you could consider it a "public final int" field. Not static of course, but it is most certainly public and final - you can't change it.

[Campbell Ritchie]

In the analogy given in the Java Language Specification chapter I quoted earlier, it most definitely is "public final int length."