How to Trigger a Memory Garbage Collection?

Solution

Many programming environments allow you to start trash collection manually. The following are examples for several languages:

1. Java

In Java, you can use Runtime or System.gc() to request garbage collection.getRuntime().gc(). This is merely a recommendation for the JVM.

System.gc();
// or
Runtime.getRuntime().gc();

2. .NET (C#)

In .NET programming language, you can use GC.Collect() to trigger garbage collection.

GC.Collect();
GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();

3. Python

Python programming allows manual garbage collection using the GC module:

import gc
gc.collect()

4. JavaScript

In Node.js, you can invoke garbage collection with global.gc(), provided you start Node.js with the --expose-gc flag:

global.gc();

Start your Node.js application with:

node --expose-gc app.js

Best Practices

• Unless necessary, avoid physical garbage collection.
• Use it in scenarios like testing or to prevent OutOfMemory errors during critical operations.
• Rely on the runtime's garbage collector for optimized memory management.