The only thing I know about PhantomReference is,
get() method, it will always return null
I used a PhantomReference in a unit test to verify that the code under test didn't keep unnessecary references to some object. (Original code)
import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull;
import static org.fest.assertions.Assertions.assertThat;
import java.lang.ref.PhantomReference;
import java.lang.ref.ReferenceQueue;
import java.lang.ref.WeakReference;
import com.google.common.testing.GcFinalization;
/**
* Helps to test for memory leaks
*/
public final class MemoryTester
{
private MemoryTester()
{
}
/**
* A simple {@link PhantomReference} that can be used to assert that all references to it is
* gone.
*/
public static final class FinalizationAwareObject extends PhantomReference
And the test:
@Test
public void testThatHoldingOnToAnObjectIsTreatedAsALeak() throws Exception
{
Object holdMeTight = new String("Hold-me-tight");
FinalizationAwareObject finalizationAwareObject = MemoryTester.createFinalizationAwareObject(holdMeTight);
try
{
finalizationAwareObject.assertThatNoMoreReferencesToReferentIsKept();
fail("holdMeTight was held but memory leak tester did not discover it");
}
catch(AssertionError expected)
{
assertThat(expected).hasMessage("[Object: Hold-me-tight was leaked] expected:<[tru]e> but was:<[fals]e>");
}
}