What is the role of strong references in memory management in programming languages?

Strong references in Java are regular references to objects that prevent these objects from being collected by the garbage collector. As long as there is at least one strong reference to an object, it is considered alive and is not removed from memory. This is the primary form of reference used in everyday programming. For example, if you have a variable referencing an object, that object will not be deleted as long as the variable exists and refers to it.

Example:

Object obj = new Object(); // strong reference to the object
// As long as obj exists, the object will not be collected by the garbage collector

Thus, strong references play a key role in memory management, determining the lifecycle of objects in Java.