Java Memory Management: Values and References

Explore effective memory management in Java in this course, one of two installments in the lively Java Memory Management series.

Introduction

• Make beautiful stack overflow errors
• What you should know

1. Java Memory Explained

• What is Java memory?
• The importance of understanding Java memory
• JVM and memory management
• Stack memory
• Heap memory
• Heap vs. stack

2. Values vs. References

• Primitives
• Objects
• Final classes and immutable objects
• Strings in memory
• Primitives and objects in memory

3. Careful: Escaping References

• The problem of escaping references
• Collections and escaping references
• Avoiding escaping collection references
• Example custom objects: References on the loose
• Avoiding escaping references

4. Quick Peek at Next Steps

• Garbage collection
• JVM tuning
• Spotting and avoiding memory leaks

Conclusion

• Next steps with Java memory management