Which is the earliest line in the following code after which the object created on the line marked(0) will be a candidate for being garbage collected, assuming no compiler optimization are done? public class Q76a9 { static String f() { String a = new String("hello"); String b= new String("bye"); //0 String c = b + "!"; //1 String d = b; b = a; //2 d = a; //3 return c; //4 } public static void main(String args[]) { String msg = f(); System.out.println(msg); //5 } } A)The line marked(1) B)The line marked(2) C)The line marked(3) - -----true D)The line marked(4) E)The line marked(5)
I think the answer should be on line marked with 4 since d has a reference on "bye". On line (marked 3), d is assigned to a, So it is after line (marked 3), the "bye" is eligible for garbage collection.
The answer is C. I think you guys aren't getting much response to this because this question was thoroughly discussed just a few days before you posted this.
Jerson- You are correct in stating it's eligible after line 3. Note that the question says "Which is the earliest line in the following code after which the object [will be GC'd]". That means if you answer 4, it means "after line 4", which is incorrect. Even though 4 is after 3, the "after" part is already built into the question, so they're looking for the answer 3.
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