Garbage Collection.....

[G Nadeem]

hi,
this may b primitive but .....plz help.
1. public void whereEligible(){
2. Object v = new Object();
3. Object b;
4. v = null;
5. b = v;
6. }
does the variable become elligible immediatly after line 4 because of being nullified OR does it not because of active reference at line 5?
thanks.

[Lawrence Chettiar]

Well Nadeem,
The object which was referenced by variable v is eligible for garbage collection after line 4, what you are using at line 5 is the reference variable and not the object referenced at line 2.
Hope this makes things clear.

[Anupam Sinha]

Hi Nadeem

does the variable become elligible immediatly after line 4

Vairables are not garbage collected its the Object they are refering is collected. So object reffered by v may be garbage collected and not v itself.
[ June 04, 2003: Message edited by: Anupam Sinha ]