001 /* java.lang.ref.WeakReference
002 Copyright (C) 1999, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
003
004 This file is part of GNU Classpath.
005
006 GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
007 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
008 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
009 any later version.
010
011 GNU Classpath is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
012 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
013 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
014 General Public License for more details.
015
016 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
017 along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
018 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
019 02110-1301 USA.
020
021 Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
022 making a combined work based on this library. Thus, the terms and
023 conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
024 combination.
025
026 As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
027 permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
028 executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
029 modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under
030 terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked
031 independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that
032 module. An independent module is a module which is not derived from
033 or based on this library. If you modify this library, you may extend
034 this exception to your version of the library, but you are not
035 obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this
036 exception statement from your version. */
037
038
039 package java.lang.ref;
040
041 /**
042 * A weak reference will be cleared, if the object is only weakly
043 * reachable. It is useful for lookup tables, where you aren't
044 * interested in an entry, if the key isn't reachable anymore.
045 * <code>WeakHashtable</code> is a complete implementation of such a
046 * table. <br>
047 *
048 * It is also useful to make objects unique: You create a set of weak
049 * references to those objects, and when you create a new object you
050 * look in this set, if the object already exists and return it. If
051 * an object is not referenced anymore, the reference will
052 * automatically cleared, and you may remove it from the set. <br>
053 *
054 * @author Jochen Hoenicke
055 * @see java.util.WeakHashMap
056 */
057 public class WeakReference<T>
058 extends Reference<T>
059 {
060 /**
061 * Create a new weak reference, that is not registered to any queue.
062 * @param referent the object we refer to.
063 */
064 public WeakReference(T referent)
065 {
066 super(referent);
067 }
068
069 /**
070 * Create a new weak reference.
071 * @param referent the object we refer to.
072 * @param q the reference queue to register on.
073 * @exception NullPointerException if q is null.
074 */
075 public WeakReference(T referent, ReferenceQueue<? super T> q)
076 {
077 super(referent, q);
078 }
079 }