Java How to Program, Early Objects, 11th Edition

8.10 Garbage Collection

Every object uses system resources, such as memory. We need a disciplined way to give resources back to the system when they’re no longer needed; otherwise, “resource leaks” might occur that would prevent resources from being reused by your program or possibly by other programs. The JVM performs automatic garbage collection to reclaim the memory occupied by objects that are no longer used. When there are no more references to an object, the object is eligible to be collected. Collection typically occurs when the JVM executes its garbage collector, which may not happen for a while, or even at all before a program terminates. So, memory leaks that are common in other languages like C and C++ (because memory is not automatically ...