How does Java Garbage Collection work with Circular References?

Question

From my understanding, garbage collection in Java cleans up some objects if nothing else is \'pointing\' to that object.

My question is, what happens if we have some

Answer 1

Bill answered your question directly. As Amnon said, your definition of garbage collection is just reference counting. I just wanted to add that even very simple algorithms like mark and sweep and copy collection easily handle circular references. So, nothing magic about it!