When you're null
ing something you just make the reference in the scope you're in null
. It doesn't affect anything outside.
Let me explain by example. Say you have a method foo:
public void foo(Node node) {
node = null;
if(node == null) {
System.out.println("node is null");
} else {
System.out.println("node is not null");
}
}
Now you call it like this:
public void doSomething() {
Node node = new Node();
foo(node);
if(node == null) {
System.out.println("Original node is null");
} else {
System.out.println("Original node is not null");
}
}
In your console you'll get:
node is null
original node in not null
The reason is that it's not a pointer, it's a reference. When you're null
ing a reference, you just say "make this reference synonym to null". It doesn't mean that the object is deleted, it may still exist in other places. There is no way to delete objects in java. All you can do is make sure no other object points to them, and the garbage collector will delete the objects (sometime).