Restoring an object in finalize() ?

[Rick Reumann]

Part of an explanation concerning garbage collection was given as:
"An object that has been eligible for garbage collection may stop being eligible and return to normal life. This occurs if the call to the finalize() method re-establishes a reference from the active part of the program to the object."
Can someone provide an example of this in a finalize method? I'm not clear how an object once eligble now could become eligible.
Thanks.

[Valentin Crettaz]

I guess the following code snippet demonstrates the concept:

public class Test{
static Test t=null;
public Test(){
this.t = this;
}
public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception{
t = new Test();
System.out.println("Test object after creation:"+t);
t=null;
System.gc();
Thread.sleep(5000);
}
protected void finalize(){
System.out.println("Test object before resurrection:"+t);
t=this;
System.out.println("Test object after resurrection:"+t);
}
}

Output:
Test object after creation:Test@17d257
Test object before resurrection:null
Test object after resurrection:Test@17d257
HIH

[Rick Reumann]

Thanks Valentin,
I was thinking that with the statement
t=this
in the finalize method that the JVM would see this and wouldn't try to even garbage collect it in the first place after it was set to null in the main. I see now that I was wrong thanks.