Is it possible to set an Object to be null from within itself?

Question

I know that this = null is illegal.

I\'m wondering if there\'s some other way to have an object clean itself up.

my desire is to be able to do some

Answer 1

You can't have an object set another object's reference to null like this without having them both aware of one another. Doing what you want is impossible without some legwork. I advise against the following example.

public class A{
    A other;
    public A(A a){
        this.other = a;
        if(a!=null)
            a.other = this;
    }
    public void doSomethingAndDisappear(){
        a.other = null;
    }
}

This will cause one value's reference to a second reference to vanish as a second reference is setting the first reference's reference to null.