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Software Engineering vocabulary · Programming Concepts

Garbage collection

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In software engineering, garbage collection means: Automatic reclamation of memory occupied by objects that a runtime determines are no longer reachable or otherwise needed.

In Turkish: otomatik bellek temizleme

How it is used

Used in managed-runtime performance discussions. It handles memory reclamation but does not replace explicit cleanup of every external resource.

Example sentences

  1. The profiler shows a pause caused by garbage collection.

  2. Reducing temporary allocations lowered the frequency of garbage collection.

Common collocations

  • garbage collection pause
  • automatic garbage collection
  • garbage collection cycle
  • runtimeThe time when a program is actually running, as opposed to when it is written or compiled. Also the software environment that runs the code, such as Node.js.
  • memory leakA bug where a program keeps memory it no longer needs, so its memory use grows over time until it slows down or crashes.
  • objectA unit in a program that groups related data and the functions that work on it, for example a user object with a name, an email and a login method.

More terms: Programming Concepts

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