Programming Concepts Intermediate

What is Garbage Collection?

An automatic memory management process that identifies and reclaims memory no longer in use by a program.

Garbage collection (GC) frees developers from manual memory management. The GC periodically identifies objects that are no longer reachable from any reference and reclaims their memory. This prevents memory leaks and dangling pointer bugs.

Common algorithms include reference counting (Python, PHP), mark-and-sweep (JavaScript), and generational collection (Java, .NET). GC introduces some overhead and occasional pauses. Languages like C/C++ and Rust use manual or ownership-based memory management instead.

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Related Terms

Testing individual components or functions of a program in isolation to verify they work correctly.

A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or performing a computation, defined as a finite sequence of instructions.

DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself)

A software development principle that aims to reduce code duplication by abstracting common patterns into reusable components.

The smallest unit of execution within a process, allowing concurrent operations to run within a single program.

SOLID Principles

Five design principles for writing maintainable, flexible object-oriented code: Single Responsibility, Open-Closed, Liskov Substitution, Interface Segregation, and Dependency Inversion.

Version Control

A system that records changes to files over time, allowing you to recall specific versions, collaborate, and track history.

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