Does Garbage Collection ever affect stack?
.net, c#, java
Solution
No garbage collect does not affect objects on the java stack.
GC only affects objects in the jvm's heap. The java GC process is multi-tiered and can be very complex, and worth reading up on. Check out a site like: http://javarevisited.blogspot.com/2011/04/garbage-collection-in-java.html to get a good grasp on how it operates.
As far as forcing the system's GC that is a bad idea. The jvm will have a better idea that you when a GC needs to run. If you are attempting to allocate a big object, the jvm will ensure the space is there for you without you needing to tell it to run the GC.
EDIT My bad, you are more concerned about C# than java. The same principals of memory management apply, stack is unaffected, don't explicitly run a GC, etc. C# is designed to operate in a similar manor to java. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973837.aspx
Problem
I have just started with .NET Framework with C# as my language. I somewhat understand the concept of GC in Java, and had a revisit to the same concept in .NET today. In C#, the value types are put onto the stack(same as the case with Java,where local variables are put onto the stack). But in C#, even `struct` is included in value types. So, even `struct`s are placed onto the stack. In a worst case scenario, where there are many method calls, and the stack is populated heavily with many methods, and each method has many local value types, and many `struct`s that themselves have many local value types, will the Garbage Collector ever affect the stack? From what I researched(and partly what I was taught about), I understand that it won't do so. Primarily because manipulating stack content will involve a lot of overhead, and besides, GC only consults stack to lookup for references - and nothing more than that. Just to add another question related on the same topic : Forcing a call to GC(like `System.gc()` in Java, not sure about the C# equivalent), doesn't ensure that the GC routine is called then and there. So where should I place such a call - where I expect that I need the GC to run, or any random place as there is no guarantee that my call would immediately trigger the GC? Or should I just leave the stuff to the Runtime Environment and not bother about it? Note: I added the Java tag because I'm trying to link concepts from there. I understand that the internal functioning of GC in the two separate Runtime Environments will definitely be different, but I guess the underlying concept would be the same.