Assigning null to String Literals & GC

Question

I want to know if assign null to string literal, will it be eligible for garbage collection or not ?

String s = "abc";
s=null;

If not how can we achieve so ? Is there any way to clear literal pool ?

You'd have to unload the class. Because the class has a reference to the string. — user253751, May 29 '17 at 06:28
"Is there any way to clear literal pool ?" - no. Why would you need that ? — Nir Alfasi, May 29 '17 at 06:28
Also you aren't assigning null to a string literal in this code. — user253751, May 29 '17 at 06:40
String literals will be GCed if they have no references and the classloader that loaded the classes that defined these literals gets GCed — TheLostMind, May 29 '17 at 06:41

user207421 · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-29T07:42:34.020

I want to know if assign null to string literal

There is no way to assign null to a string literal. There is only a way to assign null to a reference, which is what your code below is doing.

will it be eligible for garbage collection or not?

No. It will remain in the constant pool until the class is unloaded.

String s = "abc";
s=null;

If not how can we achieve so?

You can't.

Is there any way to clear literal pool?

No.

1 Answers1