So, let's say I have a bean with a whole bunch of fields/variables/objects in it. You know, like some strings, some ResultSets (very short lived), some ints, etc. Ok, so I finish with my bean. I don't need it anymore. So, I remove it from the session (where it lives) and null it out (searBean = null;). Hopefully it, at least, can now be garbage collected; what about all the little objects that used to live inside of it? Are they now garbage? Or do I need to null them each out? I suppose I could have a method cleanUp() or something that would simply null out each object within the bean and call that right before I was done with the bean, but I'm still curious. Also, for request scoped beans, presumably they're garbage nearly immediately (i.e., right after the request is over). Do I have to null out they're objects to make them garbage?
Ok... enough babbling for now. Michael Nicholson, Carolina Center for Public Service
