Java: How ArrayList memory management
- by cka3o4nik
In my Data Structures class we have studies the Java ArrayList class, and how it grows the underlying array when a user adds more elements. That is understood. However, I cannot figure out how exactly this class frees up memory when lots of elements are removed from the list. Looking at the source, there are three methods that remove elements:
[code]
public E remove(int index) {
RangeCheck(index);
modCount++;
E oldValue = (E) elementData[index];
int numMoved = size - index - 1;
if (numMoved 0)
System.arraycopy(elementData, index+1, elementData, index,
numMoved);
elementData[--size] = null; // Let gc do its work
return oldValue;
}
public boolean remove(Object o) {
if (o == null) {
for (int index = 0; index < size; index++)
if (elementData[index] == null) {
fastRemove(index);
return true;
}
} else {
for (int index = 0; index < size; index++)
if (o.equals(elementData[index])) {
fastRemove(index);
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
private void fastRemove(int index) {
modCount++;
int numMoved = size - index - 1;
if (numMoved 0)
System.arraycopy(elementData, index+1, elementData, index,
numMoved);
elementData[--size] = null; // Let gc do its work
}
{/code]
None of them reduce the datastore array. I even started questioning if memory free up ever happens, but empirical tests show that it does. So there must be some other way it is done, but where and how? I checked the parent classes as well with no success.
