Question

according to mdn documentation the method removeChild removes a node from the DOM but it still resides in memory.
My problem is that I want to delete it from memory as well.
I’ve tried with the delete operator but the object is still there…

myCanvas.parentElement.removeChild(myCanvas);  // myCanvas actually removed from DOM
delete myCanvas;  // false. does nothing
alert(myCanvas); // shows HTMLCanvasElement instead of undefined

Answer 1

Read http://perfectionkills.com/understanding-delete/. The delete operator is not for variables (that’s why it returns false).

If you want to remove the variable’s reference to the DOM node, use

myCanvas = null;

to overwrite the value. Usually you never need to do this, because the garbage collector of JS does all the work for you.