Garbage Collection

[Animesh Aries]

Hi,
If I have a List of a user defined type say L1, lets say class "Developers" object.

I have ten objects of class "Developers", D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9 and D10.
I create another List L2 of "Developers" objects and assign the existing references of D2, D5, D7 and D9 into this List.

Now, I do this -- L2 = null;

Is the object of List L2 now eligible for garbage collection ? But, it is still having object variables holding live references to D2, D5, D7 and D9, is L2 eligible for garbage collection ?
If Yes, why ? And If No, why ?

All your answers are welcome.

Thanks
Animesh

[Jesper de Jong]

If nothing else has a reference to list L2, then yes, L2 is eligible for garbage collection. It doesn't matter that L2 itself has references to objects that are still "live".

[Mittal Vishal]

Hi,

If L2 does not have any active references then it is eligible for garbage collection irrespective of whether it has references to objects which are still active.

Thanks
Vishal