is this object eligible for garbage collection??

[yuvraj kotegar]

   
class Sample {
      public static void main(String args[]) {
             StrinBuffer s=new StringBuffer("HELLO"); //LINE1
              Systen.out.println(s); //LINE2
              //LINE3
      }
}

is the object 's' eligible for garbage collection at line 3 ??

[Venkata Kumar]

Yes.When the object has no references, in the given example when the end of the main() method is reached, then it is eligible for garbage collection.

[Anoobkumar Padmanabhan]

Hi

  
class Sample {      
   public static void main(String args[]) {  
           StrinBuffer s=new StringBuffer("HELLO"); //LINE1                
           Systen.out.println(s); //LINE2      
                                //LINE3     
   }  //---------------> LINE 4      
}  

I dont think the object referred by s will be available for GC at LINE3 because it has the refernce, s, now also. An object will be available for GC, when it don't have any live references.
In my opinion, it will be available for GC at LINE 4, ie, by the end of that method

[Maya Dolas]

An object is eligible for garbage collection when there is no direct or indirect reference to it.

In this case at Line 3 there is still a reference to the StringBuffer object. The object would be eligible for garbage collection when the program goes out of scope. If you want to make it eligible for GC before the main method goes out of scope make all the references to it null explicitly.