Home/ Questions/Q 7844101
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-02T16:46:21+00:00

I have a design and I am not sure if garbage collection will occur

  • 0

I have a design and I am not sure if garbage collection will occur correctly.
I have some magic apples, and some are yummy some are bad.

I have a dictionary : BasketList = Dictionary <basketID,Basket>
(list of baskets).

Each Basket object has a single Apple in it and each Basket stores a reference to an objectAppleSeperation.

AppleSeperation stores 2 dictionaries, YummyApples = <basketID,Apple> and BadApples = Dictionary<basketID,Apple>, so when I’m asked where an apple is I know.

An Apple object stores BasketsImIn = Dictionary<ID,Basket>, which points to the Basket and in Shops, and the Apple in Basket.

My question is, if I delete a basket from BasketList and make sure I delete the Apple from BadApples and/or YummyApples, will garbage collection happen properly, or will there be some messy references lying around?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You are right to be thinking carefully about this; having the various references has implications not just for garbage collection, but for your application’s proper functioning.

    However, as long as you are careful to remove all references you have set, and you don’t have any other free-standing variables holding onto the reference, the garbage collector will do its work.

    The GC is actually fairly sophisticated at collecting unreferenced objects. For example, it can collect two objects that reference each other, but have no other ‘living’ references in the application.

    • 0