[android-developers] Memory usage problem - leak?

Hello,

In my app, I'm fetching data via HTTP and use the response string to create an ArrayList of objects. So what I'm doing once I get the response is:

String[] fields = response.split("<field>");

and use the field[] values like this:

ArrayList<Movie> movies = new ArrayList<Movie>();

for (int row = 1; row < fields.length; row += 9) {

   movies.add(new Movie(fields[row], fields[row + 1], ..., fields[row + 8]);

}

Now, when I load the heap dump of the app into Eclipse's Memory Analyzer Tool[1], the response string still shows up (about 800KB - 28%), as well as the ArrayList (245KB - 8.7%). I suppose the size of the ArrayList is about right, since some of the field values are stored as integers and there is no overhead of the <field></field> tags.

But I don't understand why the response string is still living. I've tried setting response = null after creating the array, but it still shows up. Shouldn't it be GCed? Then when I go back to my home activity, leaving the activity that fetched the data and kept the ArrayList in its adapter, both objects *still* show up. Does that mean there is a leak somewhere? Android is supposed to destroy a closed activity and its references (if not referenced elsewhere), right?

I've read Romain's blog entry about memory leaks and some more other blog entries like this[2] and this[3] one but I still can't figure this out. My real code can be found here[4].

Suggestions and hints appreciated!

[1] http://kohlerm.blogspot.com/2009/04/analyzing-memory-usage-off-your-android.html

[2] http://java.dzone.com/news/how-fix-memory-leaks-java

[3] http://kohlerm.blogspot.com/2009/02/memory-leaks-are-easy-to-find.html

[4] http://code.google.com/p/android-xbmcremote/source/browse/trunk/XBMC%20Remote/src/org/xbmc/httpapi/client/VideoClient.java#221

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