• program that obtain certain type of resources such as memory and file must return those resources to the system
• Java performs automatic garbage collection of memory no longer used by program
• e.g. close any files opened in the try block

• like finally block, the finalizer method for an object is guaranteed to be invoked to return resources to the system
• every Object has a method, called finalize() which will be invoked by the garbage collector
• however the nature of concurrent programming makes execution of garbage collector thread unpredictable
• calling System.gc() means "the Java Virtual Machine has made its best effort to recycle all discarded objects"
• you can not rely on calls to finalizer for proper deallocation of resources

...
    protected void finalize() throws Throwable {

        System.out.println("finalize() " + ADTLinkedListStudentDB.this.toString());
 	super.finalize();
    }
...
    //in driver class
    System.runFinalizersOnExit(true);

     
LearnToLearn(Java)
	

		
Java Foundation Classes
		
Java Cryptography Extension 
		
Java Data Base Connectivity
		
JavaBeans
		
Remote Method Invocation
		
Java Servlet