Using instance objects as keys in tables and preventing memory leaks after deleting data in the table - it won't leak afterwards right?

[IrisYouLuck]

Love to see it.

And let’s clarify a bit more of the nuances here:

For reference:

@sjr04

When you call a function like :GetChildren or :GetDescendants, and in your case :GetAccessories, Roblox returns a new table. The generator function ipairs and its counterparts don’t keep a reference to the table given so it won’t leak that way. When you are doing something like

x = { { }, function() end, newproxy(false) }
x = nil

The elements inside do get collected eventually since there is no more strong references to them. And of course the table x points to also gets collected.

Not sure if this is related since it’s about using weak references but it’s somewhat relevant to the last code example: Can weak values in a table avoid memory leaks from lost table refs?

@colbert2677

So essentially: even if that table has strong references in it, there’s no reference to the table, so the table and the references its holding are eligible for garbage collection. Would that effectively mean that any code samples other than the first don’t leak memory?

@sjr04

yes

Beautiful answers to nuances for reference in regards to this topic.