Finding Memory Usage in Java

Question

Following is the scenario i need to solve. I have struck with two solutions.

I need to maintain a cache of data fetched from database to be shown on a Swing GUI. Wheneve

Answer 1

The requirements you mention are a clear contradiction with how Garbage Collection works in a JVM.

because of the behaviour of the JVM it will be very hard to warn you users in a correct way. Altogether stopping als database manipulation , cleaning stuff up and starting again really is not the way to go.

Let the JVM do what it is supposed to do, handle all memory related for you. Modern generations of the JVM are very good at it and with some finetuning of the GC parameters you will get a a much cleaner memory handling then forcing things yourself

Articles like http://www.kodewerk.com/advice_on_jvm_heap_tuning_dont_touch_that_dial.htm mention the pros and cons and offer a nice explanation of what the VM does for you