Dispose a user-defined object in Java

Question

Hello,
Suppose I have the following loop :
while ( some_condition) {
UserDefinedClass abc = new UserDefinedClass();
// do some work and exit loop.
Everytime, I enter this loop I instantiate a new object "abc". I am worrying that if I keep doing this, after a while, I will run out
of memory. Is there a way to dispose a user-defined object? Or is this scenario taken care of by Java garbage collection process?
Any advice is much appreciated.
Akino.

Answer 1

Akino wrote:
Hello,
Thank you for your reply.
I wonder if you could tell me how often Java does its garbage collection?That's pretty unpredictable.
I ran a test and observed that
my program's memory usage kept going up and up.If you gave it it 64M, and the most it ever needs at one time is 10M, it can still ramp up to the full 64M, even if it's doing frequent GC. Running GC does NOT mean that the JVM gives the memory back to the OS. It can do that, and I think it does under some circumstances, but there's no guarantee if, when, or how much it will give back. GC only means that the JVM has reclaimed space that is no longer in use by objects. Whether it holds onto that memory for future use or gives it back to the OS is up to it.