Javascript and Garbage collection

Question

Is there any way to control when Javascript performs garbage collection? I would like to enable it to perform garbage collection at certain times to ensure the smooth operat

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there is no way to control WHEN the garbage collection takes place but with the proper formation of objects, you CAN control how quickly and cleanly it happens. Take a look at these documents on Mozilla Dev Net.

This algorithm assumes the knowledge of a set of objects called roots (In JavaScript, the root is the global object). Periodically, the garbage-collector will start from these roots, find all objects that are referenced from these roots, then all objects referenced from these, etc. Starting from the roots, the garbage collector will thus find all reachable objects and collect all non-reachable objects.

This algorithm is better than the previous one since "an object has zero reference" leads to this object being unreachable. The opposite is not true as we have seen with cycles.