Is there a Destructor equivalent in JAVA

[sivakumar k r]

Hi,

I truely understand that there is no need for a destructor in a java class since memory is automatically freed by the garbage collector. I would like to just see some display messages as and when an object actually goes out of scope or gets destroyed.

Is there any method that would perform this kind of an activity in java. Please keep me posted, your efforts are appreciated.

[Martin Simons]

Check out finalize in Object. Don't depend on this method though, as there are numerous situations in which it will not be called.

[Jesper de Jong]

Note that in Java, variables do not directly represent objects like they do in C++ - variables in Java are references to objects. So an object cannot go out of scope - only a variable that refers to an object can go out of scope.

You can override finalize(), which is a method in class Object that is called by the garbage collector when it is about to permanently discard an object, but that's not exactly the same as a destructor. See the API documentation of the finalize() method in class Object.
[ February 07, 2007: Message edited by: Jesper Young ]