Strings

Hi All,

Can a string object with no reference, residing in a string pool be got back? That is, i understand that each time a new literal is creatd, JVM searches for a same string in the string pool anf if it finds one it refers to that one. So if there is string which has no existing references, can it be referred by a new reference variable?

Oh yeah, the constants pool will be in the memory till the class definition is loaded in the JVM. Using String.intern() you can refer to an already existing string in the pool. It does not matter whether the string object has any references or not.

However, if there are no other references to the pooled String (other than the pool itself, which acts as a WeakReference) then the String is eligible for garbage collection. This generally will not happen right away, especially since pooled Strings are stored in a part of the heap reserved for objects which rarely get garbage collected (the so-called "permanent" generation of the heap). But it can happen eventually, and if it does, then that particular instance is lost.