General Info: Class Destructor

A special class method called when an object instance of a class is destroyed. With some languages they are called when the object instance goes out of scope, with some languages you specifically have to call the destructor in code to destroy the object, and others use a garbage collector to dispose of object instances at specific times.

Desctructors are commonly used to free the object instance but with languages that have a garbage collector object instances are disposed of when appropriate. Either way, destructors or their equivalent are commonly used to free up resources allocated in the class constructor.

Languages Focus: Destructor

Are object instances freed with a garbage collector? Or, do you have to destroy object instances.

protected void finalize() throws Throwable {
try {
	close(); // close open files
} finally {
	super.finalize();
}
}