Java Question
What is Garbage collector in JAVA?

Question

Java Question

What is Garbage collector in JAVA?

Accepted Answer

Garbage collector in Java is responsible for automatic memory management.

Garbage collector automatically reclaims memory by freeing objects that are no longer referenced.
It runs in the background and identifies unused objects based on reachability.
Different garbage collection algorithms like Mark and Sweep, Copying, and Generational are used.
Garbage collector can be tuned using JVM options like -Xmx and -Xms.
Example: System.gc() can be used to suggest garbage collection, but it's not guaranteed to run immediately.

Accepted Answer

1) Garbage Collection in Java is a process by which the programs perform memory management automatically.

2) The Garbage Collector(GC) finds the unused objects and deletes them to reclaim the memory.

3) In Java, dynamic memory allocation of objects is achieved using the new operator that uses some memory and the memory remains allocated until there are references for the use of the object.

4) When there are no references to an object, it is assumed to be no longer needed, and the memory, occupied by the object can be reclaimed.

5) There is no explicit need to destroy an object as Java handles the de-allocation automatically. The technique that accomplishes this is known as Garbage Collection. Programs that do not de-allocate memory can eventually crash when there is no memory left in the system to allocate. These programs are said to have memory leaks.

Garbage collection in Java happens automatically during the lifetime of the program, eliminating the need to de-allocate memory and thereby avoiding memory leaks.

In C language, it is the programmer’s responsibility to de-allocate memory allocated dynamically using free() function.This is where Java memory management leads.

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