Dfyjkt

I had created a static variable to save app context since I was going to use it at other places in the class. This variable was getting assigned in the constructor of the class and I was getting the following error - "Do not place Android context classes in static fields (static reference to MyClass which has field appContext pointing to Context); this is a memory leak (and also breaks Instant Run) [StaticFieldLeak]"

Below is the code within MyClass:

private static Context appContext;
public MyClass(Context context) 
 appContext = context;

To fix this issue I thought of making appContext as a weak reference variable. But I am unable to call any methods on that variable because it's of weak reference. Below is the updated code and the error I get while I tried to call a method on weak object.

Updated code:

private final WeakReference<Context> appContext;
public MyClass(Context context) 
 appContext = new WeakReference<Context>(context);

At some places in my class am trying to call appContext.getPackageManager() and appContext.getString() and I am seeing below errors:

error: cannot find symbol
symbol: method getPackageManager()
location: variable appContext of type WeakReference<Context>

error: cannot find symbol
symbol: method getString(int)
location: variable appContext of type WeakReference<Context>

How can I fix the memory leak issue if I don't make the variable a weak reference? Or if I make a weak reference, how do I execute methods on it?

You need to call the get() method on the WeakReference<Context> in order to extrapolate the Context value.

WeakReference<Context> has no getPackageManager() method, that's why you're getting that error.

The whole "context" thing really makes it hard to do layering in Android.

Without seeing the class you are trying to access, it is hard to say for certain but one option is to make all the functions static and call them with the context from your other classes. You can pass context to a static function and use it within, you just can't save it to a static variable. For example:

static void doStuff(Context context)
//do context stuff

MyClass.doStuff(myCurrentClass.this);

If you instantiating the class as an object, you don't even need to make the global context variable static at all.