Why would you ever implement finalize()?

Question

I\'ve been reading through a lot of the rookie Java questions on finalize() and find it kind of bewildering that no one has really made it plain that finalize()

Answer 1

I've been doing Java professionally since 1998, and I've never implemented finalize(). Not once.

Answer 2

It can be handy to remove things that have been added to a global/static place (out of need), and need to be removed when the object is removed. For instance:

    private void addGlobalClickListener() {
        weakAwtEventListener = new WeakAWTEventListener(this);

        Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().addAWTEventListener(weakAwtEventListener, AWTEvent.MOUSE_EVENT_MASK);
    }

    @Override
    protected void finalize() throws Throwable {
        super.finalize();

        if(weakAwtEventListener != null) {
            Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().removeAWTEventListener(weakAwtEventListener);
        }
    }

Answer 3

finalize() can be useful to catch resource leaks. If the resource should be closed but is not write the fact that it wasn't closed to a log file and close it. That way you remove the resource leak and give yourself a way to know that it has happened so you can fix it.

I have been programming in Java since 1.0 alpha 3 (1995) and I have yet to override finalize for anything...