pointers in java

[New]

Is it possible to have pointer in java (like C) so that an object can point
to another object it can point back to it without have the whole other
object inside the object because it becames an infinite loop?

Thank you

 

[Christophe Vanfleteren]

Is it possible to have pointer in java (like C) so that an object can
point to another object it can point back to it without have the whole
other object inside the object because it becames an infinite loop?

Thank you

Hmm, lots of confusion here.

First of all, Java doesn't have pointers, but references. You can do less
with references than with pointers.

I'm guessing that you're asking about wether it's ok to have a circular
references, as in

A has a references to B, which has a reference to A.

This will work without a problem, an will allow both A and B to get garbage
collected, provided you have no other references to A or B.

 

[Timo Kinnunen]

Is it possible to have pointer in java (like C) so that an object can point
to another object it can point back to it without have the whole other
object inside the object because it becames an infinite loop?

Yes, Java's references match pointers pretty closely in this respect.

 

[Roedy Green]

Is it possible to have pointer in java (like C) so that an object can point
to another object it can point back to it without have the whole other
object inside the object because it becames an infinite loop?

yes anything can point to anything in loops. An object can point to
itself.

This causes no problem unless you CHASE the chains endlessly.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/reference.html

 

[Mike Schilling]

Hmm, lots of confusion here.

First of all, Java doesn't have pointers, but references. You can do less
with references than with pointers.

That is, Java calls its pointers "references", probably because C and C++
are so familiar these days that calling them "pointers" would imply that
they supported C-like pointer arithmetic. In an alternate would in which
Pascal had the sort of success that C has had, the word "pointers" would
describe Java references quite well.

 

[Tony Morris]

This will work without a problem, an will allow both A and B to get
garbage

collected, provided you have no other references to A or B.

This is not guaranteed i.e. implementation specific behaviour.

--
Tony Morris
(BInfTech, Cert 3 I.T.)
Software Engineer
(2003 VTR1000F)
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform (1.4)
Sun Certified Developer for the Java 2 Platform

 

[Andrew Hobbs]

This is not guaranteed i.e. implementation specific behaviour.

Can you explain what you mean here. Surely simple circular references, A to
B and B to A, will not affect anything unless some method(s) creates a
circular execution path.

And if there are no references then they should be eligible for GC.

Andrew