Question

Will the car_object_1 be able to garbage collected? Somebody maintain that as car_object_1 has two reference so it will never be garaged collected. Is it true?

Car createACar()
{
  Car c = new MyCar(); //car_object_1 was created 
  return c;
}

void use_the_car()
{
  Car c2 = createACar();
  c2.run();

}

Answer 1

No, they’re talking nonsense. Assuming there’s nothing within run() which stashes a reference somewhere, the car is eligible for garbage collection after the c2.run(); statement in use_the_car.

Java is not reference counted – even circular references aren’t a problem (e.g. where a Car and a Driver have a reference to each other, but nothing has a reference to either of them).

Perhaps the person you were talking to was thinking of a slightly different situation?