Effective Java: Item 6: Eliminate obsolete object references.
Generally speaking, whenever a class
manages its own memory, the programmer
should be alert for memory leaks.
Whenever an element is freed, any
object references contained in the
element should be nulled out.
I don’t think I fully understood the description.
What are the examples of a class managing its own memory – I can think of array, list, maybe map.
Could anyone explain the item in somewhat more details it is there in the book?
Thanks
One simple example is
ArrayList, where, when an element is deleted from the end of the list it has to null the array element, not simply decrease the “last element” index. Otherwise the object removed remains reachable by theArrayList.