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Objects eligible for garbage collection.

 
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Pls have a look at the following code:
 
Ritu Kapoor
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The Answer given in the explanation of this code is 3. Shouldn't it be 4.

If 3 then please explain how.

Thanks & regards.
 
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Question for you: what is reference variable a's value at that point in the program? And b's value? And c's value?
[ January 17, 2007: Message edited by: Barry Gaunt ]
 
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can any one say what actually it means by d=c=b=a here in code???
i think all are having the same reference to one object...but if so what is that reference???
 
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We are creating 4 objects. After the statement d=c=b=a, all the four references are pointing to the first object. Since the other 3 objects are now not referred by any other object references, they will be garbage collected.
Even after setting d to null, will not garbage collect the first object, since it is still referred by a, b and c.
 
Harish Paravasthu
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public class Test{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Object a = new Object();
// the object original referenced by object reference a
Object b = new Object();
Object c = new Object();
Object d = new Object();
d=c;
c=b;
b=a;
d=null;
}
}

A small change to the above code...here in this case,how many objects go into garbage collected???

i think only one object...
 
Ritu Kapoor
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Hi Barry Gaunt ,




Statement d=c=b=a implies that all are pointing to the same object i.e. to the Object refered by reference variable a.

i.e. d,c,b and a all will be referening same object. So as per my knowledge, objects created at 2,3,4 will be abondened and are eligible for GC. Finally at step 5, since d is assigned null so the object will become eligible for GC.

so overall 4 objects will become eligible for GC.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks,
Ritu
 
Harish Paravasthu
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Hai Ritu,

you told that all references will be having a copy of a reference,so by that time b,c and d are garbage collected,so though you dereference d to null,its already vanished away in the picture.so only three objects are garbage collected,

hope you got cleared...

Harish
 
Ritu Kapoor
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Sorry but could not understand. If possible could you pls elaborate.
 
Priya Viswam
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Please think about the question by Barry. Surely you will get the answer.

Question for you: what is reference variable a's value at that point in the program? And b's value? And c's value?
 
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This is the same as this code:



So the objects created at 2,3 and 4 are no longer referenced by any variables and are eligible for GC. There are now three references to the same object created at step 1.
[ January 17, 2007: Message edited by: Mark Smyth ]
 
Ritu Kapoor
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Yeah now I got it.. Thanks a lot.

When d is assigned null, even then a,b,and c are refering to the same object. so only 3 objects are eligible for gc.

Thanks to all of you for your patience.
 
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Originally posted by Harish Paravasthu:
public class Test{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Object a = new Object();
// the object original referenced by object reference a
Object b = new Object();
Object c = new Object();
Object d = new Object();
d=c;
c=b;
b=a;
d=null;
}
}

A small change to the above code...here in this case,how many objects go into garbage collected???

i think only one object...



Mhhh. I think two objects are eligible for the garbage collector.
By assigning d=c, the object created by "Object d = new Object()" gets lost and by assignung d=null, the object created by "Object c = new Object" gets lost.
 
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Part of what makes this tricky is the line that looks like:

x = y = z;

I don't think this bit of syntactic weirdness is on the exam. Does any SCJPer out there remember seeing that construct?
 
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The meaning of multiple assignment is not hard to decipher when you remember that the assignment operator is the only binary operator that has right to left associativity.

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/operators.html

So as was pointed out previously,
d=c=b;
is equivalent to
c=b;
d=c;

Although I agree that doing something like that is probably not worth the confusion it could cause.

Regards,
Dan
 
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