Java – Is Go subject to the same subtle memory-leaks that Java is

gojavamemory-leaks

Here are the facts:

the language Go has a garbage collector.
Java has a garbage collection
a lot of Java programs have (subtle or not) memory leaks

As an example of a Java program that has memory leaks (not for the faint of heart, the question may shake your beliefs), see here about a little Java program called Tomcat that even has a "find leaks" button: Is there a way to avoid undeployment memory leaks in Tomcat?

So I am wondering: will programs written in Go exhibit the same kind of (subtle or not) memory leaks that some programs written in Java exhibit?

Best Answer

You are confusing different types of memory leaks here.

The heinous, explicit-memory-management based memory leaks are gone in Java (or any other GC based language). These leaks are caused by completely losing access to chunks of memory without marking them as unused.

The "memory leaks" still present in Java and every other language on the face of the planet until the computer can read our minds are still with us, and will be for the foreseeable future. These leaks are caused by the code/programmer keeping references to objects which are technically no longer needed. These are fundamentally logic bugs, and cannot be prevented in any language using current technologies.

Related Solutions

Java – What are the differences between a HashMap and a Hashtable in Java

There are several differences between HashMap and Hashtable in Java:

Hashtable is synchronized, whereas HashMap is not. This makes HashMap better for non-threaded applications, as unsynchronized Objects typically perform better than synchronized ones.
Hashtable does not allow null keys or values. HashMap allows one null key and any number of null values.
One of HashMap's subclasses is LinkedHashMap, so in the event that you'd want predictable iteration order (which is insertion order by default), you could easily swap out the HashMap for a LinkedHashMap. This wouldn't be as easy if you were using Hashtable.

Since synchronization is not an issue for you, I'd recommend HashMap. If synchronization becomes an issue, you may also look at ConcurrentHashMap.

Java – How does the Java ‘for each’ loop work

for (Iterator<String> i = someIterable.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
    String item = i.next();
    System.out.println(item);
}

Note that if you need to use i.remove(); in your loop, or access the actual iterator in some way, you cannot use the for ( : ) idiom, since the actual iterator is merely inferred.

As was noted by Denis Bueno, this code works for any object that implements the Iterable interface.

Also, if the right-hand side of the for (:) idiom is an array rather than an Iterable object, the internal code uses an int index counter and checks against array.length instead. See the Java Language Specification.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Java – What are the differences between a HashMap and a Hashtable in Java

Java – How does the Java ‘for each’ loop work

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