Memory Management in JavaScript with WeakRef and FinalizationRegistry
Today, we’re diving into the topic of memory management in JavaScript—but not in the traditional sense of garbage collection. Instead, we'll explore the powerful capabilities of WeakRef and FinalizationRegistry. These tools give developers control over weak references and asynchronous object finalization, allowing for more refined and efficient memory handling.
JavaScript’s garbage collector automatically manages memory for most objects, but certain scenarios, like caching or long-lived objects, can cause memory leaks.
If you're tired of objects lingering in memory longer than they should, or if you're looking for ways to manage resources without unnecessary memory leaks, this guide is for you. Let’s get started!
WeakRef allows you to hold a weak reference to an object, meaning that the reference won’t prevent the object from being garbage collected if it’s no longer needed.
Unlike normal references, weak references don’t interfere with the garbage collector’s ability to clean up unused memory. However, if you attempt to access a weakly referenced object after it has been garbage collected, it will return undefined.
