I have two threads modifying the same objects. The objects are custom, non-synchronized objects in an ArrayList (not a vector). I want to make these two threads work nicely together, since they are called at the same time.
Here is the only important method in thread 1.
public void doThread1Action() {
//something...
for(myObject x : MyArrayList){
modify(x);
}
}
Here is a method in thread 2:
public void doThread2Action() {
//something...
for(myObject x : MyArrayList){
modifyAgain(x);
}
}
At the moment, when testing, I occasionally get `ConcurrentModificationExceptions``. (I think it depends on how fast thread 1 finishes its iterations, before thread 2 tries to modify the objects.)
Am I right in thinking that by simply appending synchronized to the beginning of these two methods, the threads will work together in a synchronized way and not try to access the ArrayList? Or should I change the ArrayList to a Vector?
A ConcurrentModificationException does not stem from modifying objects in a collection but from adding / removing from a collection while an iterator is active.
The shared resources is the collection and there must be a third method using and add/remove. To get concurrency right you must synchronize access to the collection resource in all methods that access it.
To avoid overly long synchronized blocks a common pattern may be to copy the collection in a synchronized block and then iterate over it. If you do it this way, be aware the problem you are talking about in first place (concurrent modification of your object) is again in place - but this time you can lock on another resource.
You do not need to synchronize access to the list as long as you don't modify it structurally, i.e. as long as you don't add or remove objects from the list. You also shouldn't see ConcurrentModificationExceptions, because these are only thrown when you structurally modify the list.
So, assuming that you only modify the objects contained in the list, but you do not add or remove or reorder objects on the list, it is possible to synchronize on the contained objects whenever you modify them, like so:
void modifyAgain(MyObject x) {
synchronized(x) {
// do the modification
}
}
I would not use the synchronized modifier on the modifyAgain() method, as that would not allow two distinct objects in the list to be modified concurrently.
The modify() method in the other thread must of course be implemented in the same way as modifyAgain().
You need to sychronsize access to the collection on the same lock, so just using synchronized keyword on the methods (assuming they are in different classes) would be locking on two different objects.
so here is an example of what you might need to do:
Object lock = new Object();
public void doThread1Action(){
//something...
synchronized(lock){
for(myObject x : MyArrayList){
modify(x);
}
}
public void doThread2Action(){
//something...
synchronized(lock){
for(myObject x : MyArrayList){
modifyAgain(x);
}
}
Also you could consider using a CopyOnWriteArrayList instead of Vector
I guess your problem is related to ConcurrentModificationException. This class in its Java docs says:
/**
* This exception may be thrown by methods that have detected
concurrent
* modification of an object when such modification is not
permissible.
*/
In your case, problem is iterator in a list and may modified. I guess by following implementation your problem will sole:
public void doThread1Action()
{
synchronized(x //for sample)
{
//something...
for(myObject x : MyArrayList)
{
modify(x);
}
}
}
and then:
public void doThread2Action()
{
synchronized(x //for sample)
{
//something...
for(myObject x : MyArrayList)
{
modifyAgain(x);
}
}
}
For take better result I want anyone correct my solution.
Related
Imagine that we have multithreading application and a class with the following variable and method:
private List list = new ArrayList();
public void doNothing() {
synchronized (list) {
list.get(0);
String stuff = "Stuff";
list.get(0);
}
}
Am I right that when one thread processes method doNothing() it loses monitor on String stuff = "Stuff"; and the output of list.get(0); may be different because other thread can modify the list?
Yes, you are right, but not because the monitor is lost on handling the stuff string. The fact that you synchronized on the list does not prevent another thread to change it. The only way to enforce the list being unchanged between the two gets is to have all threads changing the list run that code inside a synchronized(list). Also, having a Synchronized list will not help in your case.
Only one thread at a time can work in synchronized block. But if any other thread modifies the list in for example some other function then of course, output of list.get(0) can differ between invocations. String stuff due to being created in this block can't be changed by any other thread than the one that is currently running through it.
Only one thread can execute inside a Java code block synchronized on the same monitor object.
The thread only "loses the monitor" once it reaches the end of the synchronized block.
In your specific case, the result from calling list.get(0); can be the same or not, depending on other threads that can invoke the mutators on that list outside any code block synchronized on the list object.
The purpose of the synchronization objects is to allow you to synchronize more than one block on the same lock.
In the following example only one thread can execute inside any of the two blocks at the same time:
public void doNothing() {
synchronized (list) {
//someStuff
}
}
public void doSomething() {
synchronized (list) {
//anotherStuff
}
}
so I got this horses race and when a horse getting to the finishing line, I invoke an arrival method. Let's say I got 10 threads, one for each horse, and the first horse who arrives indeed invoking 'arrive':
public class FinishingLine {
List arrivals;
public FinishingLine() {
arrivals = new ArrayList<Horse>();
}
public synchronized void arrive(Horse hourse) {
arrivals.add(hourse);
}
}
Ofc I set the arrive method to synchronized but I dont completely understand what could happen if it wasnt synchronized, the professor just said it wouldn't be safe.
Another thing that I would like to understand better is how it is decided which thread will after the first one has been finished? After the first thread finished 'arrive' and the method get unlocked, which thread will run next?
1) It is undefined what the behaviour would be, but you should assume that it is not what you would want it to do in any way that you can rely upon.
If two threads try to add at the same time, you might get both elements added (in either order), only one element added, or maybe even neither.
The pertinent quote from the Javadoc is:
Note that this implementation is not synchronized. If multiple threads access an ArrayList instance concurrently, and at least one of the threads modifies the list structurally, it must be synchronized externally. (A structural modification is any operation that adds or deletes one or more elements, or explicitly resizes the backing array; merely setting the value of an element is not a structural modification.)
2) This is down to how the OS schedules the threads. There is no guarantee of "fairness" (execution in arrival order) for regular synchronized blocks, although there are certain classes (Semaphore is one) which give you the choice of a fair execution order.
e.g. you can implement a fair execution order by using a Semaphore:
public class FinishingLine {
List arrivals;
final Semaphore semaphore = new Semaphore(1, true);
public FinishingLine() {
arrivals = new ArrayList<Horse>();
}
public void arrive(Horse hourse) {
semaphore.acquire();
try {
arrivals.add(hourse);
} finally {
semaphore.release();
}
}
}
However, it would be easier to do this with a fair blocking queue, which handles the concurrent access for you:
public class FinishingLine {
final BlockingQueue queue = new ArrayBlockingQueue(NUM_HORSES, true);
public void arrive(Horse hourse) {
queue.add(hourse);
}
}
The first thread is filling a collection continuously with objects. A second thread needs to iterate over these objects, but it will not change the collection.
Currently I use Collection.synchronized for making it thread-safe, but is there a fast way to doing it?
Update
It's simple: The first thread (ui) continuously writes the mouse position to the ArrayList, as long as the mousebutton is pressed down. The second thread (render) draws a line based on the list.
Use java.util.concurrent.ArrayBlockingQueue.ArrayBlockingQueue implementation of BlockingQueue. It perfectly suits your needs.
It is perfectly suited for producer-consumer cases as that is one in yours.
You can also configure access policy. Javadoc explains access policy like this:
Fair if true then queue accesses for threads blocked on insertion or removal, are processed in FIFO order; if false the access order is unspecified.
Even if you synchronize the list, it's not necessarily thread-safe while iterating over it, so make sure you synchronize on it:
synchronized(synchronizedList) {
for (Object o : synchronizedList) {
doSomething()
}
}
Edit:
Here's a very clearly written article on the matter:
http://java67.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-to-synchronize-arraylist-in-java.html
As mentioned in comments, you need explicit synchronization on this list, because iteration is not atomic:
List<?> list = // ...
Thread 1:
synchronized(list) {
list.add(o);
}
Thread 2:
synchronized(list) {
for (Object o : list) {
// do actions on object
}
}
There are 3 options which I can currently think of to handle concurrency in ArrayList:-
Using Collections.synchronizedList(list) - currently you are using it.
CopyOnWriteArrayList - behaves much like ArrayList class, except that when the list is modified, instead of modifying the underlying array, a new array in created and the old array is discarded. It will be slower than 1.
Creating custom ArrayList class using ReentrantReadWriteLock. You can create a wrapper around ArrayList class. Use read lock when reading/iterating/looping and use write lock when adding elements in array.
For e.g:-
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.Lock;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReadWriteLock;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock;
public class ReadWriteList<E> {
private final List<E> list;
private ReadWriteLock lock = new ReentrantReadWriteLock();
private final Lock r =lock.readLock();
private final Lock w =lock.writeLock();
public ReadWriteList(List<E> list){
this.list=list;
}
public boolean add(E e){
w.lock();
try{
return list.add(e);
}
finally{
w.unlock();
}
}
//Do the same for other modification methods
public E getElement(int index){
r.lock();
try{
return list.get(index);
}
finally{
r.unlock();
}
}
public List<E> getList(){
r.lock();
try{
return list;
}
finally{
r.unlock();
}
}
//Do the same for other read methods
}
If you're reading far more often than writing, you can use CopyOnWriteArrayList
Rather than a List will a Set suit your needs?
If so, you can use Collections.newSetFromMap(new ConcurrentHashMap<>())
I am trying to run 2 concurrent threads, where one keeps adding objects to a list and the other updates these objects and may remove some of these objects from the list as well.
I have a whole project where I've used ArrayList for my methods and classes so it's difficult to change it now.
I've looked around and I found a few ways of doing this, but as I said it is difficult to change from ArrayList. I tried using synchronized and notify() for the method adding the objects to the list and wait() for the method changing these objects and potentially removing them if they meet certain criteria.
Now, I've figured out how to do this using a CopyOnWriteArrayList, but I would like to know if there's a possibility of using ArrayList itself to simulate this. so that I don't have to edit my entire code.
So, basically, I would like to do something like this, but with ArrayList:
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.concurrent.CopyOnWriteArrayList;
public class ListExample{
CopyOnWriteArrayList<MyObject> syncList;
public ListExample(){
syncList = new CopyOnWriteArrayList<MyObject>();
Thread thread1 = new Thread(){
public void run(){
synchronized (syncList){
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++){
syncList.add(new MyObject(i));
}
}
}
};
Thread thread2 = new Thread(){
public void run(){
synchronized (syncList){
Iterator<MyObject> iterator = syncList.iterator();
while(iterator.hasNext()){
MyObject temp = iterator.next();
//this is just a sample list manipulation
if (temp.getID() > 3)
syncList.remove(temp);
System.out.println("Object ID: " + temp.getID() + " AND list size: " + syncList.size());
}
}
}
};
thread1.start();
thread2.start();
}
public static void main(String[] args){
new ListExample();
}
}
class MyObject{
private int ID;
public MyObject(int ID){
this.ID = ID;
}
public int getID(){
return ID;
}
public void setID(int ID){
this.ID = ID;
}
}
I've also read about Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList()) but again, I believe this would require me to change my code as I have a substantial number of methods that take ArrayList as a parameter.
Any guidance would be appreciated, because I am out of ideas. Thank you.
You may be interested on the collections provided by the java.util.concurrent package. They are very useful for producer/consumer scenarios, where one or more threads add things to a queue, and other threads take them. There are different methods depending on whether you want to block, or fail when the queue is full/empty.
About refactoring your methods, you should have used interfaces (e.g. List) instead of concrete implementation classes (such as ArrayList). That is the purpose of interfaces, and the Java API has a good suply of them.
As a quick solution u may extend ArrayList and make modifying methods (add/remove) synchronized. and re-factor code to replace ArrayList to your custom-ArrayList
Use Vector instead of ArrayList. Remember to store it in a List reference as Vector contains deprecated methods. Vector, unlike ArrayList, synchronizes its internal operations, and unlike CopyOnWriteArrayList, does not copy the internal array each time a modification is made.
Of course you should be using java.util.concurrent pakage. But let's look at what is happening/could happen with only ArrayList and synchronization.
In your code, if you have just ArrayList in place of CopyOnWriteArrayList, it should work as you have provided full synchronization synchronized (syncList) on whatever you are doing/manipulating in threads. You do not require any wait() notify() if whole thing is synchronized (But that's not recommended, will come to that).
But this code will give ConcurrentModificationException because once you are using iterator syncList.iterator() you should not remove element from that list, otherwise it may give undesirable results while iterating that's why it's designed to fail fast and give exception. To avoid this you can use like:
Iterator<MyObject> iterator = syncList.iterator();
ArrayList<MyObject> toBeRemoved = new ArrayList<MyObject>();
while(iterator.hasNext()){
MyObject temp = iterator.next();
//this is just a sample list manipulation
if (temp.getID() > 3)
{
//syncList.remove(temp);
toBeRemoved.add(temp);
}
System.out.println("Object ID: " + temp.getID() + " AND list size: " + syncList.size());
}
syncList.removeAll(toBeRemoved);
Now regarding synchronization, you should strive to minimize its scope otherwise there'll be unnecessary waiting between threads, thats why java.util.concurrent package is given to have high performance in multithreading (using even non blocking algorithms). Or you can also use Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList()) but they are not as good as concurrent classes.
If you want to use conditional synchronization like in producer/consumer problem, then you can use wait() notify() mechanism on same object (lock). But again there're already some classes to help like using java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue.
The another question is about synchronized. I have also a run() in class Note,because i want to output each element in notes every 5 minutes. But i get always exception:java.util.ConcurrentModificationException,if i try to make more meetings in main. so i applay synchronized to the list notes which may be added a new meeting when i iterate over notes.My run method like this:
Is it correct way hier on list notes to synchronized to prevent ConcurrentModificationException ?(In my program it works.I get never this exception now)
A Meeting class and Note class may likes this:
public class Meeting{
public Meeting(Note note_1,Note note_2){
note_1.addElement(this);
note_2.addElement(this);}
//another method hier
}
public class Note implements Runnable{
public final List<Meeting> notes = new ArrayList<Meeting>();
public void addElement(Meeting n){
entries.add(n);
}
#Override
public void run(){
while(true) {
for(Meeting n : notes){
System.out.println(n.toString);}
}
try{ Thread.sleep(10);}
}
}
}
I get always exception error about exception:java.util.ConcurrentModificationException if i try to make more Meeting in main ,So i changes a littel in class Note,likes this :
private static final List<Entry> entries = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList<Entry>());
and in run()
#Override
public void run() {
while(true){
synchronized(notes){
for(Entry n : entries){
//do something
}
}
try {
Thread.sleep(10);
} catch (InterruptedException e ) {
}
}
}
}
From the javadoc
Note that this exception does not always indicate that an object has been concurrently modified by a different thread. If a single thread issues a sequence of method invocations that violates the contract of an object, the object may throw this exception. For example, if a thread modifies a collection directly while it is iterating over the collection with a fail-fast iterator, the iterator will thow this exception.
THis means do not change your collection in a loop and iterate over it at the same time even in the same thread.
Read to what #Navi had written.
In a nutshell - NEVER remove/add elements of a collection in for each loop.
I once had that kind of problem and I decided to use http://code.google.com/p/google-collections/
There are some map/filter functions there (if I recall that methods were in Collections2 library).
If you are not willing to make the things right, you can always use the old-school iterator technique.
I've used a CopyOnWriteArrayList before when I encountered this sort of problem.
This makes a complete copy of the underlying array for each write, so it's not very efficient, but I've found it very useful for specific circumstances (e.g. a class which manages specialised event notification to some other classes)
This array never changes during the lifetime of the iterator, so interference is impossible and the iterator is guaranteed not to throw ConcurrentModificationException