Garbage Collection (Islands of isolation)

[Juan Manuel Alberto de los Santos]

class island {
 
    island i;
 
    public static void main(String... x) {
 
        // reference variables (instance var) i1 and i2 lives in the heap ?
        island i1 = new island();
        island i2 = new island();
 
        // what i am doing here with i1.i and i2.i, what is ".i" doing ?
        i1.i = i2;
        i2.i = i1;
 
        //Here i am nulling the refferences to the "outside world"
        i1 = null;
        i2 = null;
    }
}

[Vijitha Kumara]

i1 object's i instance variable referes to i2 object and i2's instance variable refers to i1 object. When you make i1 & i2 null those two objects become isolated from outside.

[Rob Spoor]

Even though both objects still have a reference (from the other one), no other code can ever get a reference.