R.oo (version 1.9.8)

finalize.Object: Finalizer methods called when object is clean out

Description

Finalizer methods are called just the moment before the object is about to be deleted by the garbage collector. If creating a custom finalize() method for a subclass in a package, then it needs to be exported in the NAMESPACE of that package. If not, it will not be found nor called and there will be no error message. A finalizer method should never be called explicitly!

Usage

## S3 method for class 'Object':
finalize(this, ...)

Arguments

...

Not used.

See Also

For more information see Object.

Examples

setConstructorS3("MyClass", function() {
    extend(Object(), "MyClass")
  })

  setMethodS3("finalize", "MyClass", function(this) {
    cat(as.character(this), "is about to be removed from the memory!
")
  })

  o <- MyClass()
  o <- MyClass()
  o <- MyClass()
  o <- MyClass()
  gc()

  MyClass: 0x01BE602C is about to be removed from the memory!
  MyClass: 0x01BFF634 is about to be removed from the memory!
  MyClass: 0x01C13584 is about to be removed from the memory!
           used (Mb) gc trigger (Mb)
  Ncells 229903  6.2     467875 12.5
  Vcells  53725  0.5     786432  6.0

  rm(o)
  MyClass: 0x01C578B0 is about to be removed from the memory!
           used (Mb) gc trigger (Mb)
  Ncells 229903  6.1     467875 12.3
  Vcells  53725  0.5     786432  6.0