What process is used for freeing unused space in memory management?

Garbage collection is a process used in memory management to automatically reclaim memory that is no longer being used by the program. When a program allocates memory for objects or data structures, there may come a time when those objects are no longer needed, but the memory they occupy isn’t immediately freed. Garbage collection identifies these unused objects and reclaims the memory, making it available for future allocations without requiring manual intervention from the programmer.

This process enhances the efficiency of memory usage and helps prevent memory leaks, which occur when memory that is no longer needed is not released back for use. Garbage collection is particularly important in languages like Java and Python, where it helps manage memory automatically, allowing developers to focus more on application logic rather than on manual memory management.

In contrast, memory allocation refers to the process of reserving memory space for variables, objects, or data structures when they are created. Stack management pertains to how temporary data is handled in a structured way, typically for function calls within the program. Heap sorting is an algorithm related to sorting data structures and does not deal with memory management directly.