Object resurrection

Article summary

In object-oriented programming languages with garbage collection, object resurrection occurs when an object becomes reachable (in other words, no longer garbage) during the process of object destruction, as a side effect of a finalizer being executed. Object resurrection causes a number of problems, particularly that the possibility of object resurrection – even if it does not occur – makes garbage collection significantly more complicated and slower, and is a major reason that finalizers are discouraged. Languages deal with object resurrection in various ways. In rare circumstances, object resurrection is used to implement certain design patterns, notably an object pool, while in other circumstances resurrection is an undesired bug caused by an error in finalizers, and in general resurrection is discouraged.

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