CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidmemory-leaksleakcanary
Shahid Helal
Shahid Helal

Reputation: 23

Will making application class singleton cause memory leak?

I created a custom Application class for my app. This class onCreate sets a static variable of itself like this

public void onCreate() {
  super.onCreate();
  mInstance = this;
}
public static ChattyApp getInstance() {
  return mInstance;
}

Then I use App.getInstance() method to get application context to a nonactivity/fragment class like API Controller or something. Can it cause a memory leak?

I setup leak canary and it is showing memory leak on an instance variable of Application class. This variable keeps socket.io's socket ref so that I can use it anywhere in the app.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 444

Answers (1)

kerry
kerry

Reputation: 2572

It is a good question that you have asked and people on SO have had extensive discussions on this. Have a look at this and this

Although this seems to be an okay way to store the Context in Application class as per the discussion in the first link, there can be better ways to deal with this.

Ideally for each logic unit you should have a separate class to deal with it rather than polluting your application class. You application class can however initialize or setup those other classes. This will create a separation of concern.

Another way is to use Dagger2, which is a dependency injection framework, to inject your socket ref to wherever you want.

Dagger 2 has a steep learning curve and but a very important tool to learn as an Android developer

Upvotes: 1

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