Editing Tracing garbage collection (section)

== Weak collections ==
[[Data structure]]s can also be devised which have weak tracking features. For instance, weak [[hash table]]s are useful. Like a regular hash table, a weak hash table maintains an association between pairs of objects, where each pair is understood to be a key and value. However, the hash table does not actually maintain a strong reference on these objects. Special behavior takes place when either the key or value or both become garbage: the hash table entry is spontaneously deleted. There exist further refinements such as hash tables which have only weak keys (value references are ordinary, strong references) or only weak values (key references are strong).

Weak hash tables are important for maintaining associations between objects, such that the objects engaged in the association can still become garbage if nothing in the program refers to them any longer (other than the associating hash table).

The use of a regular hash table for such a purpose could lead to a "logical memory leak": the accumulation of reachable data which the program does not need and will not use.