q on garbage collection

[JayaSiji Gopal]

From the following code how many objects are eligible for garbage collection?
String string1 = "Test";
String string2 = "Today";
string1 = null;
string1 = string2;

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 0

I answered 0 but the correct answer is one.
I answered 0, bcos string1 is set to null, but in the very next line, is says string1 = string2.

plz explain.

[Barry Gaunt]

Jayashree, please quote the exact source of these questions. This one is clearly wrong.

[John Neel]

i feel the answer 1 is correct.

as the object "Test" is not referred by any one, it can be garbage collected.

plz correct me if i were wrong

[sandu sudhakar]

Ref: article
http://www.javaranch.com/journal/200409/Journal200409.jsp#a1

"String Literals are not eligible for garbage collection".

So in this example, none of the objects are eligible for garbage collection.
Answer: 0

[Mike Gershman]

From Bert Bates (who should know):

focus on non-String objects when you're studying GC, don't worry about GC and Strings together.

This is a problem with some mock exams, they have clever questions that are outside the exact scope of the exam.