Garbage Collector?

[Ricky Ignatius]

Hi All,
I have doubt on this question

In the following code, which is the earliest statement, where the object originally held in e, may be garbage collected:

1: public class Test {
2: public static void main (String args []) {
3: Employee e = new Employee("Bob", 48);
4: e.calculatePay();
5: System.out.println(e.printDetails());
6: e = null;
7: e = new Employee("Denise", 36);
8: e.calculatePay();
9: System.out.println(e.printDetails());
10: }
11: }

answer : Line 7

Why its line 7 not line 6?

Thanks,

Ricky

[Arul Prasad]

the memory of an object will be eligible for garbage collected ,when ever it was unreachable by any code NOTE: the point eligible . here in the 3rd line ur intiating the object for the Employee class
Employee e = new Employee("Bob", 48);

which was refered to e
inside the method main() so it was avail for that method scope that is upto line no 10 but u r again reiniate the reference e in the line 7
e = new Employee("Denise", 36);

so here the old reference will be unreachable by the code .. so in this line object e old reference will eligible for garbage collected and it will refer to the new memory ...

[Krishna Latha Grandhi]

hi prasad,

I am not cleared abt this doubt. you are right when line 6 is absent. After execution of line 6, the reference varible doesn't point to the real object.
It is not pointing to the object,then why it is not garbage collected?

Regards
krishna.

[A Kumar]

Hi..

In the following code, which is the earliest statement, where the object originally held in e, may be garbage collected...

Here consider the term earliest...

At line 6 ...you are making the dereferencing of the object..and only after the completion of line 6 ....will the obejct be eligible for GC..
i.e. when it reaches line 7.

Not when you reach line 6..

Regards
[ November 18, 2005: Message edited by: A Kumar ]

[Krishna Latha Grandhi]

Thank you kumar

Regards
krishna

[Ricky Ignatius]

Originally posted by A Kumar:
Hi..



Here consider the term earliest...

At line 6 ...you are making the dereferencing of the object..and only after the completion of line 6 ....will the obejct be eligible for GC..
i.e. when it reaches line 7.

Not when you reach line 6..

Regards

[ November 18, 2005: Message edited by: A Kumar ]

Oh ic, thanks.
Quite tricky question, need to read very very carefully


Ricky