Question

Lets say I have a Fragment defined as such:

public class MyFragment extends Fragment {
   private static String sample = "";

   public static void setSample(String s) {
      sample = s;
   }
}

for the lifetime of the Application, will sample get garbage collected (whether or not any references to MyFragment exist – which shouldn’t matter I think)?

Answer 1

You’re right that the number of instances of MyFragment don’t matter.

The sample variable will effectively be a GC root for as long as the classloader that loaded MyFragment is alive.

It’s important to note that variables are never garbage collected – objects are.