I have a class like this one:
public class IClass{
public void draw(){...}; //is called periodically by the rendering thread
public void foo(){...}; //is called asynchronously from another Thread(it could be an onTouchEvent() method for example)
}
I want the foo() method to wait until the draw method is finished and vice versa. How can I do this in Java?
regards
Make the methods synchronized.
public synchronized void draw() { System.out.println("draw"); }
public synchronized void foo() { System.out.println("foo"); }
Or synchronize on the same object.
private static final Object syncObj = new Object();
public void draw() {
synchronized (syncObj) {
System.out.println("draw");
}
}
public void foo() {
synchronized (syncObj) {
System.out.println("foo");
}
}
Putting synchronized on a method means the thread has to acquire the lock on the object instance before entering that method, so if you have two different methods marked synchronized the threads entering them will be contending for the same lock, and once one thread gets the lock all other threads are shut out of all methods that synchronize on that same lock. So in order for the two methods to run concurrently they would have to use different locks, like this:
public class IClass {
private final Object lockDraw = new Object();
private final Object lockFoo = new Object();
public void draw() {
synchronized(lockDraw) {
//method draw
}
}
public void foo() {
synchronized(lockFoo) {
//method foo
}
}
}
Both methods lock the same monitor. Therefore, you can't simultaneously execute them on the same object from different threads (one of the two methods will block until the other is finished).
Related
I have a class:
class Station {
public void decrement(){
// ...
}
}
There are two different instances of it: station1 and station2. The function decrement() gets called on station1 and station2 by two different threads. I want to synchronize decrement() over all objects and threads.
As per what I read, synchronized keyword synchronizes the calls of a function of one single object, so it won't work here. How do I synchronize calls across all instances of Station?
synchronized object instead. Example:
class Station {
private final static Object DECREMENT_LOCKER = new Object();
public void decrement(){
synchronized (DECREMENT_LOCKER) {
//do smt
}
}
}
So I have the following scenario (can't share the actual code, but it would be something like this):
public class Test
{
private Object obj;
public void init()
{
service.registerListener(new InnerTest());
}
public void readObj()
{
// read obj here
}
private class InnerTest implements Listener
{
public synchronized void updateObj()
{
Test.this.obj = new Object();
// change the obj
}
}
}
The InnerTest class is registered as listener in a service. That Service is running in one thread the calls to readObj() are made from a different thread, hence my question, to ensure consistency of the obj is it enough to make the UpdateObj() method synchronized?
I would suggest using another object as a lock to ensure that the class only blocks when the obj is accessed:
public class Test
{
private final Object lock = new Object();
private Object obj;
public void init()
{
service.registerListener(new InnerTest());
}
public void readObj()
{
synchronized(lock){
// read obj here
}
}
private class InnerTest implements Listener
{
public void updateObj()
{
synchronized(Test.this.lock){
Test.this.obj = new Object();
// change the obj
}
}
}
}
Then use that lock in all methods that need to have consistent access to obj. In your current example the readObj and updateObj methods.
Also as stated in the comments, using synchronized on the method level in your InnerTest class, will not really work as you probably intended. That is, because synchronized methods will use a synchronized block on the this variable. Which just blocks your InnerTest class. But not the outer Test class.
public synchronized int getCountOne() {
return count++;
}
Like in above code synchronizing on the method is functionally equivalent to having a synchronized (this) block around the body of the method. The object "this" doesn't become locked, rather the object "this" is used as the mutex and the body is prevented from executing concurrently with other code sections also synchronized on "this."
On similar grounds what is used as a mutex when we acquire a class level lock.As in if we have a function
public static synchronized int getCountTwo() {
return count++;
}
obviously two threads can simultaneously obtain locks on getCountOne(object level lock) and getCountTwo(class level lock). So as getCountOne is analogous to
public int getCountOne() {
synchronized(this) {
return count++;
}
}
is there an equivalent of getCountTwo? If no what criteria is used to obtain a Class level lock?
On similar grounds what is used as a mutex when we acquire a class level lock
The class object itself will be used as mutex. The equivalent synchronized block for your static synchronized method will look like:
public static int getCountTwo() {
synchronized(ClassName.class) {
return count++;
}
}
ClassName is the name of the class containing that method.
See JLS Section §8.4.3.6:
A synchronized method acquires a monitor (§17.1) before it executes.
For a class (static) method, the monitor associated with the Class
object for the method's class is used.
For an instance method, the monitor associated with this (the object
for which the method was invoked) is used.
Emphasis mine.
Object level locking:
Object level locking is mechanism when you want to synchronize a non-static method or non-static code block such that only one thread will be able to execute the code block on given instance of the class. This should always be done to make instance level data thread safe. This can be done as below :
public class DemoClass
{
public synchronized void demoMethod(){}
}
or
public class DemoClass
{
public void demoMethod(){
synchronized (this)
{
//other thread safe code
}
}
}
or
public class DemoClass
{
private final Object lock = new Object();
public void demoMethod(){
synchronized (lock)
{
//other thread safe code
}
}
Class level locking:
Class level locking prevents multiple threads to enter in synchronized block in any of all available instances on runtime. This means if in runtime there are 100 instances of DemoClass, then only one thread will be able to execute demoMethod() in any one of instance at a time, and all other instances will be locked for other threads. This should always be done to make static data thread safe.
public class DemoClass
{
public synchronized static void demoMethod(){}
}
or
public class DemoClass
{
public void demoMethod(){
synchronized (DemoClass.class)
{
//other thread safe code
}
}
}
or
public class DemoClass
{
private final static Object lock = new Object();
public void demoMethod(){
synchronized (lock)
{
//other thread safe code
}
}
}
What would be the behaviour of the following program where static synchronized method and instance synchronized method is trying to access static field of same class in different threads? Will any thread get blocked? Its very confusing.
class MyClass
{
public static int i = 5;
public synchronized void m1()
{
System.out.println(i); //uses static field i of MyClass
//T1 is executing this method
}
public static synchronized void m3()
{
//T2 will be able to call this method on same object lock while it is using
//static field i???
System.out.println(i);//uses static field i of MyClass
}
}
Synchronized instance methods are equivalent of
public void m1() {
synchronized(this) {
...
}
}
(well, they are not exactly the same, but the answer to your question does not suffer from that difference).
Synchronized static methods are synchronized on the class:
public void m2() {
synchronized(MyClass.class) {
...
}
}
As you can see, two block are synchronized on difference objects: m1 is synchronized on the instance it is called on, and m2 is synchronized on the instance of Class<MyClass> which represents your class in JVM. So those two methods can be called without blocking each other.
You are always synchronizing on an object.
Funciton m1 synchronizes on an instance of an object on which it is called.
Function m3 synchronizes on the class itself.
m1 could be written as:
public void m1()
{
synchronized(this) {
System.out.println(i); //uses static field i of MyClass
//T1 is executing this method
}
}
Therefore you are synchronizing on two different objects and these two methods can acces any global variable concurrently.
Your sample code looks good.
Best way to assure synchronization of static variables according to me is. As lock object is not accessible outside your Class. See below.
public class MyClass
{
private static int i = 0;
private static final Object lockObject = new Object();
public void m1() {
synchronized (lockObject ) {
//Use you static var
}
}
public void m3() {
synchronized (lockObject ) {
//Use you static var
}
}
}
The method m1 and m3 can be executed independently.
Because as you already said static synchronized is on the object. Therefore the same as synchronize(MyClass.class).
synchronized are instance wide usable. So it is only blocked for the instances. It would be the same as using:
MyClass myClass = new MyClass();
synchronize (myClass)
{
.....
}
Java does not have any synchronization controls that relate to accessing static fields.
If you make your methods empty, the synchronization will be exactly the same.
Specifically, as long as any thread is executing any synchronized static method in that type, all other threads that call synchronized static methods will wait for them to finish, so that at most one synchronized static method will be executing at once.
With the following code, if a thread calls LoggingWidget.doSomething(),
what is the order of lock acquisition that the thread has to go through?
(i.e. does it get the Lock on LoggingWidget first, and then gets the lock on Widget ? )
public class Widget {
public synchronized void doSomething() {
}
}
public class LoggingWidget extends Widget {
public synchronized void doSomething() {
System.out.println(toString() + ": calling doSomething");
super.doSomething();
}
}
The lock in this case is on this so there is only one lock, that being the instance. If there are more than one instance, each has an entirely separate lock regardless of whether it is a Widget or a LoggingWidget.
Let me put it another way. Your code is semantically equivalent to:
public class Widget {
public void doSomething() {
synchronized (this) {
// do stuff
}
}
}
public class LoggingWidget extends Widget {
public void doSomething() {
synchronized (this) {
System.out.println(toString() + ": calling doSomething");
super.doSomething();
}
}
}
Only one of these methods is called so there's only one lock.
In Java, they're caleld monitors and are per object. In your example, there is only one monitor.
There is only one lock bcoz there is only one object, but if the sub-class object's doSomething() method is called, the same lock is acquired twice. In JVM, the owner(thread) is same but it sets the acquisition count to two. The acquisition count is decremented each time when the owning thread exists the synchronized block. So here it would be decremented twice down to zero when the lock is finally released, one for each synchronized block.
If you want to ensure you get the correct lock of type LoggingWidget and not Widget you can do this:
public class LoggingWidget extends Widget {
private final Object readLock = new Object();
public void doSomething() {
synchronized (readLock) {
System.out.println(toString() + ": calling doSomething");
super.doSomething();
}
}
}
Or if you use Lombok you can just write
public class LoggingWidget extends Widget {
#Synchronized("readLock")
public void doSomething() {
System.out.println(toString() + ": calling doSomething");
super.doSomething();
}
}