Java removing class from arraylist

Question

If I have an Array List with classes in it and I remove a class from the list, will the class be removed/deleted and the memory it used be freed up?

thanks

enrico.bacis · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-18T22:40:54.277

I think you mean that you have objects in the ArrayList, not classes.

Objects are instances of classes, for example Integer is a class, when you do Integer a = new Integer(1), then a is an object of the class Integer).

Java is garbage collected, it means that you don't have to explicitly tell the compiler when to free the memory (like in C for example), the garbage collector will periodically check if the instance is not referenced anywhere else, and if that's the case, it means that the object can no longer be accessed and the memory will be freed.

What you can do is to call System.gc() to tell the garbage collector that you want it to perform a collection. This is only an hint, there is no way to force an immediate collection.

I think he has an `ArrayList` of `Class` objects. – drew moore Aug 18 '14 at 22:35 — drew moore, Aug 18 '14 at 22:35

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 18 '14 at 22:31

0

No. You remove reference, not actual class.

answered Aug 18 '14 at 22:31

Arvy

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what can i do to free up the memory it is using? – oliverjrose99 Aug 18 '14 at 22:32
@user3866695 Nothing, just let the garbage collector do its thing. You don't need manual memory management in Java. – azurefrog Aug 18 '14 at 22:33
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/148681/unloading-classes-in-java – Arvy Aug 18 '14 at 22:34
thanks azurefrog and Arvy – oliverjrose99 Aug 18 '14 at 22:35

Java removing class from arraylist

2 Answers2