University of Central Florida (UCF) COP3330 Object Oriented Programming Final Practice Exam

The Java garbage collector plays a crucial role in memory management within the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Its primary responsibility is to identify and dispose of unreferenced objects, which are objects that are no longer accessible within a program. By automatically reclaiming the memory used by these unreferenced objects, the garbage collector helps to prevent memory leaks and optimize the use of available memory, allowing the application to run more efficiently.

When an object is created in Java, it occupies memory until there are no more references to it, meaning that the program can no longer access that object. The garbage collector periodically scans the heap memory to locate these unreachable objects and collects them, freeing up memory space for future allocations. This process is essential for the long-term health and performance of Java applications, as it allows developers to focus on writing code without having to worry about manual memory management.

The other concepts presented in the question, while related to memory management and resource allocation in some way, do not accurately describe the specific function of the garbage collector.