String and Garbage Collection

[Yun Hao]

Suppose in the code, we have statement like this:

1. String s1="My String";
2. s1="Another String";

my question is after line 1, whether there is object created? After line 2, whether there is object eligible for garbage collection?

[Premil Jacob]

both the strings you created i.e,

1. String s1="My String";
2. s1="Another String";

both the strings "My String" and "Another String" are intern'd. What that means is that both the strings will only garbage collected when the java runtime exits.

[Yun Hao]

Thanks Permil. I want to be much clearer. You are saying that no object is eligible for garbage collection after line 2. Is that what you mean? This is what I thought first. Because "My String" is in the string literal pool.If I change the line 1 to s1=new String("My String"); after line 2, I think one object is eligible for garbage collection.

Thanks

[Francis Palattao]

If I change the line 1 to s1=new String("My String"); after line 2, I think one object is eligible for garbage collection.

Yes I agree the "My String" literal is an object created but no reference to it. So it is eligible for garbage collection but I think since it is a literal I heard it will never be garbage collected because there is a reference to it from the string literal pool.