Java Term of the Week: Garbage Collection

Every time a Java program makes a new object it is allocated a certain amount of space in memory. When that object is no longer used by the program we want to free up the space it was using so that it can be used for something else.

"Garbage Collection" is the name that is given to the automated process of detecting objects that are no longer used by a program and freely up the memory that is associated with them. This process saves Java programmers from having to explicitly dispose of objects to free up memory.