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Package java.util.concurrent

Utility classes commonly useful in concurrent programming.

See:
           Description

Interface Summary
BlockingDeque<E> BlockingQueue<E> A Deque Queue
BlockingQueue<E> A Queue
Callable<V> A task that returns a result and may throw an exception.
CompletionService<V> A service that decouples the production of new asynchronous tasks from the consumption of the results of completed tasks.
ConcurrentMap<K,V> A Map providing additional atomic putIfAbsent , remove , and replace methods.
ConcurrentNavigableMap<K,V> A ConcurrentMap supporting NavigableMap
Delayed A mix-in style interface for marking objects that should be acted upon after a given delay.
Executor An object that executes submitted Runnable tasks.
ExecutorService An Executor that provides methods to manage termination and methods that can produce a Future for tracking progress of one or more asynchronous tasks.
Future<V> A Future represents the result of an asynchronous computation.
RejectedExecutionHandler A handler for tasks that cannot be executed by a ThreadPoolExecutor .
RunnableFuture<V> A Future that is Runnable
RunnableScheduledFuture<V> A ScheduledFuture that is Runnable
ScheduledExecutorService An ExecutorService that can schedule commands to run after a given delay, or to execute periodically.
ScheduledFuture<V> A delayed result-bearing action that can be cancelled.
ThreadFactory An object that creates new threads on demand.
 

Class Summary
AbstractExecutorService Provides default implementations implementation of ExecutorService
ArrayBlockingQueue<E> A bounded blocking queue backed by an array.
ConcurrentHashMap<K,V> A hash table supporting full concurrency of retrievals and adjustable expected concurrency for updates.
ConcurrentLinkedQueue<E> An unbounded thread-safe queue based on linked nodes.
ConcurrentSkipListMap<K,V> CopyOnWriteArrayList<E> A scalable concurrent ConcurrentNavigableMap thread-safe variant of ArrayList
ConcurrentSkipListSet<E> CopyOnWriteArraySet<E> A scalable concurrent NavigableSet Set implementation based on a ConcurrentSkipListMap that uses CopyOnWriteArrayList
CopyOnWriteArrayList<E> A thread-safe variant of ArrayList add , set , and so on) are implemented by making a fresh copy of the underlying array.
CopyOnWriteArraySet<E> A Set that uses an internal CopyOnWriteArrayList
CountDownLatch A synchronization aid that allows one or more threads to wait until a set of operations being performed in other threads completes.
CyclicBarrier A synchronization aid that allows a set of threads to all wait for each other to reach a common barrier point.
DelayQueue<E extends Delayed> An unbounded blocking queue of Delayed elements, in which an element can only be taken when its delay has expired.
Exchanger<V> A synchronization point at which two threads can pair and swap elements within pairs. exchange objects.
ExecutorCompletionService<V> A CompletionService that uses a supplied Executor to execute tasks.
Executors Factory and utility methods for Executor , ExecutorService , ScheduledExecutorService , ThreadFactory , and Callable classes defined in this package.
FutureTask<V> A cancellable asynchronous computation.
LinkedBlockingDeque<E> An optionally-bounded blocking deque
LinkedBlockingQueue<E> An optionally-bounded blocking queue based on linked nodes.
PriorityBlockingQueue<E> An unbounded blocking queue that uses the same ordering rules as class PriorityQueue and supplies blocking retrieval operations.
ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor A ThreadPoolExecutor that can additionally schedule commands to run after a given delay, or to execute periodically.
Semaphore A counting semaphore.
SynchronousQueue<E> A blocking queue put must wait for a take , and vice versa.
ThreadPoolExecutor An ExecutorService that executes each submitted task using one of possibly several pooled threads, normally configured using Executors factory methods.
ThreadPoolExecutor.AbortPolicy A handler for rejected tasks that throws a RejectedExecutionException .
ThreadPoolExecutor.CallerRunsPolicy A handler for rejected tasks that runs the rejected task directly in the calling thread of the execute method, unless the executor has been shut down, in which case the task is discarded.
ThreadPoolExecutor.DiscardOldestPolicy A handler for rejected tasks that discards the oldest unhandled request and then retries execute , unless the executor is shut down, in which case the task is discarded.
ThreadPoolExecutor.DiscardPolicy A handler for rejected tasks that silently discards the rejected task.
 

Enum Summary
TimeUnit A TimeUnit represents time durations at a given unit of granularity and provides utility methods to convert across units, and to perform timing and delay operations in these units.
 

Exception Summary
BrokenBarrierException Exception thrown when a thread tries to wait upon a barrier that is in a broken state, or which enters the broken state while the thread is waiting.
CancellationException Exception indicating that the result of a value-producing task, such as a FutureTask , cannot be retrieved because the task was cancelled.
ExecutionException Exception thrown when attempting to retrieve the result of a task that aborted by throwing an exception.
RejectedExecutionException Exception thrown by an Executor when a task cannot be accepted for execution.
TimeoutException Exception thrown when a blocking operation times out.
 

Package java.util.concurrent Description

Utility classes commonly useful in concurrent programming. Thispackage includes a few small standardized extensible frameworks, aswell as some classes that provide useful functionality and areotherwise tedious or difficult to implement. Here are briefdescriptions of the main components. See also the locks and atomic packages.

Executors

Interfaces. Executor is a simplestandardized interface for defining custom thread-like subsystems,including thread pools, asynchronous IO, and lightweight taskframeworks. Depending on which concrete Executor class is being used,tasks may execute in a newly created thread, an existingtask-execution thread, or the thread calling execute() , andmay execute sequentially or concurrently. ExecutorService provides a more completeasynchronous task execution framework. An ExecutorService managesqueuing and scheduling of tasks, and allows controlled shutdown. The ScheduledExecutorService subinterfaceand associated interfaces add subinterfaceadds support for delayed and periodic task execution.ExecutorServices provide methods arranging asynchronous execution ofany function expressed as Callable , theresult-bearing analog of Runnable . A Future returns the results of a function, allowsdetermination of whether execution has completed, and provides a means tocancel execution. A RunnableFuture isa Future that possesses a run method that upon execution,sets its results.

Implementations. Classes ThreadPoolExecutor and ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor provide tunable,flexible thread pools. The Executors class provides factory methods for the most common kinds andconfigurations of Executors, as well as a few utility methods forusing them. Other utilities based on Executors include the concreteclass FutureTask providing a commonextensible implementation of Futures, and ExecutorCompletionService , that assists incoordinating the processing of groups of asynchronous tasks.

Queues

The java.util.concurrent ConcurrentLinkedQueue class supplies anefficient scalable thread-safe non-blocking FIFO queue. Fiveimplementations in java.util.concurrent support the extended BlockingQueue interface, that defines blockingversions of put and take: LinkedBlockingQueue , ArrayBlockingQueue , SynchronousQueue , PriorityBlockingQueue , and DelayQueue . The different classes cover the mostcommon usage contexts for producer-consumer, messaging, paralleltasking, and related concurrent designs. The BlockingDeque interface extends BlockingQueue to support both FIFO and LIFO (stack-based)operations. Class LinkedBlockingDeque provides an implementation.

Timing

The TimeUnit class provides multiplegranularities (including nanoseconds) for specifying and controllingtime-out based operations. Most classes in the package containoperations based on time-outs in addition to indefinite waits. In allcases that time-outs are used, the time-out specifies the minimum timethat the method should wait before indicating that ittimed-out. Implementations make a "best effort" to detecttime-outs as soon as possible after they occur. However, an indefiniteamount of time may elapse between a time-out being detected and athread actually executing again after that time-out. All methodsthat accept timeout parameters treat values less than or equal tozero to mean not to wait at all. To wait "forever", you can usea value of Long.MAX_VALUE .

Synchronizers

Four classes aid common special-purpose synchronization idioms. Semaphore is a classic concurrency tool. CountDownLatch is a very simple yet verycommon utility for blocking until a given number of signals, events,or conditions hold. A CyclicBarrier is aresettable multiway synchronization point useful in some styles ofparallel programming. An Exchanger allowstwo threads to exchange objects at a rendezvous point, and is usefulin several pipeline designs.

Concurrent Collections

Besides Queues, this package supplies a few Collection implementationsdesigned for use in multithreaded contexts: ConcurrentHashMap , ConcurrentSkipListMap CopyOnWriteArrayList , ConcurrentSkipListSet , and CopyOnWriteArraySet , CopyOnWriteArrayList , and CopyOnWriteArraySet .When many threads are expected to access a given collection,a ConcurrentHashMap is normally preferable toa synchronized HashMap , and a ConcurrentSkipListMap is normally preferableto a synchronized TreeMap . A CopyOnWriteArrayList is preferable toa synchronized ArrayList when the expected number of readsand traversals greatly outnumber the number of updates to a list.

The "Concurrent" prefix used with some classes in this package is ashorthand indicating several differences from similar "synchronized"classes. For example java.util.Hashtable and Collections.synchronizedMap(new HashMap()) aresynchronized. But ConcurrentHashMap is"concurrent". A concurrent collection is thread-safe, but notgoverned by a single exclusion lock. In the particular case ofConcurrentHashMap, it safely permits any number of concurrent reads aswell as a tunable number of concurrent writes. "Synchronized" classescan be useful when you need to prevent all access to a collection viaa single lock, at the expense of poorer scalability. In other cases inwhich multiple threads are expected to access a common collection,"concurrent" versions are normally preferable. And unsynchronizedcollections are preferable when either collections are unshared, orare accessible only when holding other locks.

Most concurrent Collection implementations (including most Queues)also differ from the usual java.util conventions in that their Iteratorsprovide weakly consistent rather than fast-fail traversal. Aweakly consistent iterator is thread-safe, but does not necessarilyfreeze the collection while iterating, so it may (or may not) reflectany updates since the iterator was created.

Memory Consistency Properties

Chapter 17 of the Java Language Specification defines the happens-before relation on memory operations such as reads andwrites of shared variables. The results of a write by one thread areguaranteed to be visible to a read by another thread only if the writeoperation happens-before the read operation. Thesynchronized and volatile constructs, as well as theThread.start() and Thread.join() methods, can form happens-before relationships. In particular: The methods of all classes in java.util.concurrent and itssubpackages extend these guarantees to higher-levelsynchronization. In particular: Most concurrent Collection implementations (including most Queues)also differ from the usual java.util conventions in that their Iteratorsprovide weakly consistent rather than fast-fail traversal. Aweakly consistent iterator is thread-safe, but does not necessarilyfreeze the collection while iterating, so it may (or may not) reflectany updates since the iterator was created.

Since:
1.5