Difference Between final, finally and finalize() in Java

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In Java, the terms final, finally, and finalize() may look and sound similar, but they serve completely different purposes. While beginners often confuse them, each has its unique use case — one deals with immutability, another with exception handling, and the last one with garbage collection.

In this article, we will dive deep into each of these keywords/methods, understand what they do, how they work, and explore real examples to avoid confusion.

1. What is final in Java?

final is a keyword in Java that is used to restrict the behavior of variables, methods, and classes. Once something is marked as final, it cannot be changed or modified.

✅ Use Cases of final:

a. Final Variables:

A variable declared as final cannot be reassigned once initialized.

final int x = 100;
x = 200; // ❌ Compile-time error

This is useful when you want to create constants.

b. Final Methods:

A method marked as final cannot be overridden by subclasses.

class Parent {
    final void show() {
        System.out.println("Parent…