Garbage Collection

Garbage Collection
1 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | INTERNAL

Objectives
At the end of this module, you will be able to:

– Get basic information about garbage collection
– Define finalize method
2 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

Garbage Collection

Garbage Collection- Introduction
You have created objects of classes in last several programs.
What do you think will happen to the memory occupied by these
object when the program finishes?
Once the program completes,

These objects become garbage…
Now what to do with these garbage???

We need to clean it up!!!

Java’s Cleanup Mechanism – The Garbage Collector
• Java has its own Garbage Collector
• Consider the following:
Test test=new Test();
Here when the object is created, memory

is allocated for this object.
test=null; => When you execute this, the reference is deleted but
the memory occupied by the object is not released.
We need to release the memory occupied by the ‘test’ object.

• Objects on the heap must be deallocated or destroyed, and

their memory released for later reallocation
• Java handles object deallocation automatically through

garbage collection
• Objects which are occupying memory but not referenced will

be reclaimed

• The Garbage Collection is done automatically by JVM.

• If we need to manually do the garbage collection, we can use
the following method:
Runtime rs = Runtime.getRuntime();
rs.gc();
The gc() method is used to manually run the garbage collection.

Example
import java.util.*;
class GarbageCollection {
public static void main(String s[]) throws Exception {
Runtime rs = Runtime.getRuntime();
System.out.println("Free memory in JVM before Garbage
Collection = "+rs.freeMemory());
rs.gc();
System.out.println("Free memory in JVM after Garbage
Collection = "+rs.freeMemory()); } }
Here the rs.freeMemory() method will give the free memory

available in the system. Try this program and observe the
results…

The finalize( ) Method
• Often, an object needs to perform some action when it is destroyed
• The action could pertain to:

– releasing a file handle
– reinitializing a variable, such as a counter
• Java’s answer is a mechanism called finalization
• By using finalization, you can define specific actions that will occur
when an object is just about to be reclaimed by the garbage collector

The finalize( ) Method (Contd.).
• To add a finalizer to a class, you simply define the finalize( ) method
• The Java runtime calls that method whenever it is about to recycle an

object of that class
• Inside the finalize( ) method, you will specify those actions that must be
performed before an object is destroyed

Example Demonstrating finalize() method
public class CounterTest {

public static int count;
public CounterTest ( ) {
count++;
}
}
public static void main(String args[ ]) {

CounterTest ob1 = new CounterTest ( ) ;
System.out.println("Number of objects :" +
CounterTest.count) ;
CounterTest ob2 = new CounterTest ( );

Example Demonstrating finalize() method (Contd.).
Output:
Runtime r = Runtime.getRuntime( ); Number of objects :1
ob1 = null; Number of objects :2
ob2 = null; Program about to terminate
r.gc( ); Number of objects :1
} Program about to terminate
Number of objects :0
protected void finalize( ) {
System.out.println("Program about to terminate");
CounterTest.count --;
}
}

Point out the errors in the following code :
1. class A1 {
2. final void m1() { }
3. } Compilation Error..!
4. final class A2 extends A1 {

5. void m1() {
6. System.out.println(“Method m1 of A2”);
7. }
8. }
9. class A3 extends A2{

10. public static void main(String[] args) {
11. System.out.println(“Executed
Successfully");
12. }
13.}

Point out the errors in the following code (Contd.).
1. abstract class A1 {
2. abstract final void m1();
3. }
4. abstract class A2 extends A1 {

5. abstract void m2();
6. } Compilation Error..!
7. class A3 extends A2{

8. public static void main(String[] args) {
9. System.out.println(“Executed
Successfully");
10. }
11.}

Quiz
• In which of the below cases, an object is eligible for Garbage

Collection?
a. Demo d;
b. Demo d= new Demo();
c. Demo d=new Demo(); d=null;
d. None of the above.

Summary
• In this session, you were able to:

– Get basic information about garbage collection
– Define finalize method

Thank You

Garbage Collection

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1 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | INTERNAL

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

– Define finalize method

2 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

3 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

Once the program completes,

Now what to do with these garbage???

4 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

• Consider the following:

Test test=new Test();

Here when the object is created, memory

We need to release the memory occupied by the ‘test’ object.

5 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

• Objects on the heap must be deallocated or destroyed, and

• Java handles object deallocation automatically through

• Objects which are occupying memory but not referenced will

6 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

• The Garbage Collection is done automatically by JVM.

The gc() method is used to manually run the garbage collection.

7 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

Here the rs.freeMemory() method will give the free memory

8 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

• The action could pertain to:

• Java’s answer is a mechanism called finalization

9 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

• The Java runtime calls that method whenever it is about to recycle an

10 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

public class CounterTest {

public static void main(String args[ ]) {

11 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

12 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

4. final class A2 extends A1 {

9. class A3 extends A2{

13 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

4. abstract class A2 extends A1 {

7. class A3 extends A2{

14 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

• In which of the below cases, an object is eligible for Garbage

15 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

• In this session, you were able to:

– Define finalize method

16 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

17 © 2012 WIPRO LTD | WWW.WIPRO.COM | CONFIDENTIAL

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