Programmer's Guide to Java™ Certification, A: A Comprehensive Primer, Second Edition

8.1. Garbage Collection

Efficient memory management is essential in a runtime system. Storage for objects is allocated in a designated part of memory called the heap. The size of the heap is finite. Garbage collection is a process of managing the heap efficiently; that is, reclaiming memory occupied by objects that are no longer needed and making it available for new objects. Java provides automatic garbage collection, meaning that the runtime environment can take care of memory management concerning objects without the program having to take any special action. Storage allocated on the heap through the new operator is administered by the automatic garbage collector. The automatic garbage collection scheme guarantees that a reference to an object ...