Object lifetime management refers to the process of creating, maintaining, and destroying objects within a software application.

In object-oriented programming, objects are instances of classes that encapsulate data and behavior.

These objects are created dynamically during the execution of a program and must be properly managed to ensure efficient memory usage and avoid memory leaks. The lifetime of an object begins when it is created and ends when it is destroyed.

During its lifetime, an object may be accessed, modified, and passed between different parts of the program.

Proper management of object lifetimes involves ensuring that objects are created when needed, retained only as long as necessary, and destroyed when no longer needed. One common approach to object lifetime management is using constructors and destructors in object-oriented languages such as C++ and Java.

Constructors are special methods that are called when an object is created, allowing for initialization of the object's data members.

Destructors, on the other hand, are called when an object is destroyed, allowing for cleanup of resources allocated by the object. In addition to constructors and destructors, other techniques such as reference counting, garbage collection, and smart pointers can also be used to manage object lifetimes.

Reference counting involves keeping track of the number of references to an object and automatically destroying the object when the reference count reaches zero.

Garbage collection is a form of automatic memory management that periodically scans the program's memory to identify and reclaim unused objects.

Smart pointers are objects that automatically manage the lifetime of the object they point to, ensuring that the object is destroyed when no longer needed. Proper object lifetime management is essential for writing efficient, reliable, and maintainable software.

By carefully managing the creation, retention, and destruction of objects, developers can prevent memory leaks, reduce resource usage, and improve the overall performance of their applications.