how to destroy an object in java?

Question

I encountered this question in an interview with following options:

How to destroy an object in java?

a. System.gc();  
b. Runtime.getRuntime.gc();  
c. object.delete();  
d. object.finalize();  
e. Java performs gc by itself, no need to do it manually.

1. The answer should be e?

2. what if e was not there? then ? clearly c is not the answer. a and b will do gc for the whole application(question requires for one object). I think it is d because finalize() is called just prior to gc(but is it necessary that after finalize gc is invoked ?) or I am wrong ? e must be there to answer this question ?

Answer 1

Answer E is correct answer. If E is not there, you will soon run out of memory (or) No correct answer.

Object should be unreachable to be eligible for GC. JVM will do multiple scans and moving objects from one generation to another generation to determine the eligibility of GC and frees the memory when the objects are not reachable.

Answer 2

To clarify why the other answers can not work:

1. System.gc() (along with Runtime.getRuntime().gc(), which does the exact same thing) hints that you want stuff destroyed. Vaguely. The JVM is free to ignore requests to run a GC cycle, if it doesn't see the need for one. Plus, unless you've nulled out all reachable references to the object, GC won't touch it anyway. So A and B are both disqualified.

2. Runtime.getRuntime.gc() is bad grammar. getRuntime is a function, not a variable; you need parentheses after it to call it. So B is double-disqualified.

3. Object has no delete method. So C is disqualified.

4. While Object does have a finalize method, it doesn't destroy anything. Only the garbage collector can actually delete an object. (And in many cases, they technically don't even bother to do that; they just don't copy it when they do the others, so it gets left behind.) All finalize does is give an object a chance to clean up before the JVM discards it. What's more, you should never ever be calling finalize directly. (As finalize is protected, the JVM won't let you call it on an arbitrary object anyway.) So D is disqualified.

5. Besides all that, object.doAnythingAtAllEvenCommitSuicide() requires that running code have a reference to object. That alone makes it "alive" and thus ineligible for garbage collection. So C and D are double-disqualified.

Answer 3

Short Answer - E

Answer isE given that the rest are plainly wrong, but ..

Long Answer - It isn't that simple; it depends ...

Simple fact is, the garbage collector may never decide to garbage collection every single object that is a viable candidate for collection, not unless memory pressure is extremely high. And then there is the fact that Java is just as susceptible to memory leaks as any other language, they are just harder to cause, and thus harder to find when you do cause them!

The following article has many good details on how memory management works and doesn't work and what gets take up by what. How generational Garbage Collectors work and Thanks for the Memory ( Understanding How the JVM uses Native Memory on Windows and Linux )

If you read the links, I think you will get the idea that memory management in Java isn't as simple as a multiple choice question.

Answer 4

Set to null. Then there are no references anymore and the object will become eligible for Garbage Collection. GC will automatically remove the object from the heap.

Answer 5

Here is the code:

public static void main(String argso[]) {
int big_array[] = new int[100000];

// Do some computations with big_array and get a result. 
int result = compute(big_array);

// We no longer need big_array. It will get garbage collected when there
// are no more references to it. Since big_array is a local variable,
// it refers to the array until this method returns. But this method
// doesn't return. So we've got to explicitly get rid of the reference
// ourselves, so the garbage collector knows it can reclaim the array. 
big_array = null;

// Loop forever, handling the user's input
for(;;) handle_input(result);
}

Answer 6

In java there is no explicit way doing garbage collection. The JVM itself runs some threads in the background checking for the objects that are not having any references which means all the ways through which we access the object are lost. On the other hand an object is also eligible for garbage collection if it runs out of scope that is the program in which we created the object is terminated or ended. Coming to your question the method finalize is same as the destructor in C++. The finalize method is actually called just before the moment of clearing the object memory by the JVM. It is up to you to define the finalize method or not in your program. However if the garbage collection of the object is done after the program is terminated then the JVM will not invoke the finalize method which you defined in your program. You might ask what is the use of finalize method? For instance let us consider that you created an object which requires some stream to external file and you explicitly defined a finalize method to this object which checks wether the stream opened to the file or not and if not it closes the stream. Suppose, after writing several lines of code you lost the reference to the object. Then it is eligible for garbage collection. When the JVM is about to free the space of your object the JVM just checks have you defined the finalize method or not and invokes the method so there is no risk of the opened stream. finalize method make the program risk free and more robust.