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How do I dereference a static string

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  How do I dereference a static string "C.D. Altenburg, Ph.D," <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2022-11-03 10:05 -0700
    Re: How do I dereference a static string Andreas Leitgeb <avl@logic.at> - 2022-11-03 17:38 +0000
    Re: How do I dereference a static string "e.d.pro...@gmail.com" <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2022-11-03 12:37 -0700
      Re: How do I dereference a static string Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2022-11-03 20:14 -0400
    Re: How do I dereference a static string Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2022-11-03 19:29 -0400

#39830 — How do I dereference a static string

Say I have the string

public static string foo = "foo";

can I just do

foo = null;

in order to dereference that string?

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#39831

C.D. Altenburg, Ph.D, <cdalten@gmail.com> wrote:
> Say I have the string
> public static string foo = "foo";
> can I just do
> foo = null;
> in order to dereference that string?

For what you're doing, "unreferencing" might be the better word.

The word from subject "dereferencing" rather denotes access of the
referenced thing, like in  System.out.println(foo);

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#39833

On Thursday, November 3, 2022 at 1:05:17 PM UTC-4, C.D. Altenburg, Ph.D, wrote:
> Say I have the string 
> 
> public static string foo = "foo"; 
> 
> can I just do 
> 
> foo = null; 
> 
> in order to dereference that string?
That depends what you mean by dereference. If you want to clear the value, sure set to null like that would work. If you mean remove the variable from memory, static values are tied to the class, you'd have to unload the class.
It is still possible but not advisable to have a public static variable which is not final.  It's better to make it private static and use accessor methods.

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#39836

On 11/3/2022 3:37 PM, e.d.pro...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Thursday, November 3, 2022 at 1:05:17 PM UTC-4, C.D. Altenburg, Ph.D, wrote:
>> Say I have the string
>>
>> public static string foo = "foo";
>>
>> can I just do
>>
>> foo = null;
>>
>> in order to dereference that string?

> That depends what you mean by dereference. If you want to clear the
> value, sure set to null like that would work. If you mean remove the
> variable from memory, static values are tied to the class, you'd have
> to unload the class.
Note that:

... foo = "foo";
...
foo = null;

Involves two memory locations.

The variable foo that is a reference and a
String object containing "foo".

Arne

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#39835

On 11/3/2022 1:05 PM, C.D. Altenburg, Ph.D, wrote:
> Say I have the string
> 
> public static string foo = "foo";
> 
> can I just do
> 
> foo = null;
> 
> in order to dereference that string?

It is a valid statement.

But note that Java does not use reference
counting for memory management so setting
references to null when "done" is
very rare in Java (doing it when "ready"
is seen).

Arne

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