Technology Fundamentals
Garbage Collection
Definition
Garbage collection (GC) is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector attempts to reclaim memory that was allocated by the program, but is no longer referenced; such memory is called garbage.
Why It Matters
Automatic garbage collection frees developers from the burden of manual memory management, which is a common source of bugs (like memory leaks). It makes programming safer and more productive in many modern languages.
Contextual Example
In languages like Java, C#, or JavaScript, when you create an object, memory is allocated for it. When there are no longer any references to that object in your code, the garbage collector will automatically free up that memory so it can be used for something else.
Common Misunderstandings
- Languages like C and C++ do not have automatic garbage collection; the programmer is responsible for manually allocating and freeing memory.
- Garbage collection is not "free"; it consumes some CPU time to run, which can cause brief pauses in an application's execution (known as "GC pause").