您不应该依赖finalize()来为您清理资源。Finalize()在类被垃圾回收之前不会运行。在使用完资源后显式地释放资源要好得多。

一个简单的规则:永远不要使用终结器。

对象具有终结器(不管它执行什么代码)这一事实本身就足以导致相当大的垃圾收集开销。

摘自Brian Goetz的一篇文章:

Objects with finalizers (those that have a non-trivial finalize() method) have significant overhead compared to objects without finalizers, and should be used sparingly. Finalizeable objects are both slower to allocate and slower to collect. At allocation time, the JVM must register any finalizeable objects with the garbage collector, and (at least in the HotSpot JVM implementation) finalizeable objects must follow a slower allocation path than most other objects. Similarly, finalizeable objects are slower to collect, too. It takes at least two garbage collection cycles (in the best case) before a finalizeable object can be reclaimed, and the garbage collector has to do extra work to invoke the finalizer. The result is more time spent allocating and collecting objects and more pressure on the garbage collector, because the memory used by unreachable finalizeable objects is retained longer. Combine that with the fact that finalizers are not guaranteed to run in any predictable timeframe, or even at all, and you can see that there are relatively few situations for which finalization is the right tool to use.

为了强调以上答案中的一点:终结器将在单独的GC线程上执行。我听说过一个大型的Sun演示，开发人员在一些终结器中添加了一个小睡眠，并故意让一个原本花哨的3D演示崩溃。

最好避免，可能的例外是test-env诊断。

Eckel的《Thinking in Java》在这方面有一个很好的章节。

您可以将它用作持有外部资源(套接字、文件等)的对象的支持。实现close()方法和需要调用它的文档。

如果检测到close()没有执行，则实现finalize()来执行close()处理。可能会将一些东西转储到stderr，以指出您正在清理有错误的调用者。

它在异常/有bug的情况下提供了额外的安全性。并不是每个调用者每次都会执行正确的try {} finally{}。不幸的是，但在大多数环境中都是如此。

我同意很少有人需要它。正如评论者指出的那样，它带来了GC开销。只有当你在一个长期运行的应用程序中需要“皮带和背带裤”的安全性时才使用。

我看到从Java 9开始，Object.finalize()已弃用!它们将我们指向java.lang.ref.Cleaner和java.lang.ref.PhantomReference作为替代。

嗯，我曾经用它来清理没有返回到现有池的对象。

它们经常被转来转去，所以不可能知道什么时候能安全地放回泳池。问题在于，它在垃圾收集过程中带来了巨大的损失，远远超过了使用对象池节省的成本。在我拆除整个池，让所有内容都变得动态并完成之前，它已经投入了大约一个月的时间。

class MyObject {
    Test main;

    public MyObject(Test t) {    
        main = t; 
    }

    protected void finalize() {
        main.ref = this; // let instance become reachable again
        System.out.println("This is finalize"); //test finalize run only once
    }
}

class Test {
    MyObject ref;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Test test = new Test();
        test.ref = new MyObject(test);
        test.ref = null; //MyObject become unreachable，finalize will be invoked
        System.gc(); 
        if (test.ref != null) System.out.println("MyObject still alive!");  
    }
}

====================================

结果:

This is finalize

MyObject still alive!

=====================================

所以你可以在finalize方法中使一个不可达的实例可达。