What does 'synchronized' mean?

java multithreading keyword synchronized
Johanna picture Johanna · Jul 6, 2009 · Viewed 493.8k times · Source

I have some questions regarding the usage and significance of the synchronized keyword.

  • What is the significance of the synchronized keyword?
  • When should methods be synchronized?
  • What does it mean programmatically and logically?

Answer

Stu Thompson picture Stu Thompson · Jul 6, 2009

The synchronized keyword is all about different threads reading and writing to the same variables, objects and resources. This is not a trivial topic in Java, but here is a quote from Sun:

synchronized methods enable a simple strategy for preventing thread interference and memory consistency errors: if an object is visible to more than one thread, all reads or writes to that object's variables are done through synchronized methods.

In a very, very small nutshell: When you have two threads that are reading and writing to the same 'resource', say a variable named foo, you need to ensure that these threads access the variable in an atomic way. Without the synchronized keyword, your thread 1 may not see the change thread 2 made to foo, or worse, it may only be half changed. This would not be what you logically expect.

Again, this is a non-trivial topic in Java. To learn more, explore topics here on SO and the Interwebs about:

Keep exploring these topics until the name "Brian Goetz" becomes permanently associated with the term "concurrency" in your brain.

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