Thread: Can an object change it's own reference?

Hi,

I was wondering if you could do something like this in java:

public Class Actor {

...
Object Object 1 = new Object(...);
...

public void function() {

this.Object1 = this.Object1.loop();

}

}

where

public Class Object {

...

public Object loop() {

Object Object2 = new Object(...);
...
return Object2;

}

}



Could this cause reference problems? Is there any "cleaner" way to make an object spawn its own successor?

Thank you in advance

Object1 = Object1.methodCall();

In other generic terms:

VariableName = VariableName.returnValueFromMethodCall();

Essentially this says set the value of the variable to the value returned by the method call. As long as the types match there should be no problem. It does not matter which object the method call belongs to, even the same object.
Think about what happens to the object previously stored in the variable Object1 when the line of code executes. Where does it go?

When this.object1.loop(); is called new object gets created.
When above object is assigned to this.object1 the reference to old object is lost and will garbage collected.