In computer science, reference counting is a technique of storing the number of references, pointers, or handles to a resource such as an object, block of memory, disk space or other resource. It may also refer, more specifically, to a garbage collection algorithm that uses these reference counts to deallocate objects which are no longer referenced.
Read more about Reference Counting: Use in Garbage Collection, Advantages and Disadvantages, Graph Interpretation, Dealing With Inefficiency of Updates, Dealing With Reference Cycles, Variants of Reference Counting
Famous quotes containing the words reference and/or counting:
“Meaning is what essence becomes when it is divorced from the object of reference and wedded to the word.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“But counting up to two
Is harder to do....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)