Most of the time, you can probably get by fine not knowing anything about memory management as a JavaScript developer. Afterall, the JavaScript engine handles this for you.

At one point or another, though, you'll encounter problems, like memory leaks, that you can only solve if you know how memory allocation works.

In this article, I'll introduce you to how memory allocation and garbage collection works and how you can avoid some common memory leaks.

How does JavaScript work in the browser?

This article is the second part of my post series, where I explain how JavaScript works in the browser. To get my latest articles to your inbox, subscribe to my newsletter.

• Part 1: JavaScript Event Loop And Call Stack Explained
• Part 2: JavaScript's Memory Management: Heap And Garbage Collection Explained

• Memory life cycle

• The memory heap and stack

  • Stack: Static memory allocation
  • Heap: Dynamic memory allocation
  • Examples

• References in JavaScript

  • Examples

• Garbage collection

  • Reference-counting garbage collection
  • Mark-and-sweep algorithm
  • Trade-offs

• Memory leaks

  • Global variables
  • Forgotten timers and callbacks
  • Out of DOM reference

• Conclusion