Automatic release of memory space (garbage collection)

In COBOL2000, programmers do not have to worry about releasing the storage space that is occupied by program objects that are no longer needed. This task is performed for COBOL2000 programs by a “Garbage Collector”. However, the Garbage Collector does not request the space occupied by these objects at the point when they are no longer required by the program. Instead, this mechanism requests the memory space when the total amount of available memory space becomes low. When this occurs, the program may temporarily appear to stop.