How do I make my ArrayList Thread-Safe? Another approach to problem in Java?

Question

I have an ArrayList that I want to use to hold RaceCar objects that extend the Thread class as soon as they are finished executing. A class, called Race, handles this ArrayList using a callback method that the RaceCar object calls when it is finished executing. The callback method, addFinisher(RaceCar finisher), adds the RaceCar object to the ArrayList. This is supposed to give the order in which the Threads finish executing.

I know that ArrayList isn't synchronized and thus isn't thread-safe. I tried using the Collections.synchronizedCollection(c Collection) method by passing in a new ArrayList and assigning the returned Collection to an ArrayList. However, this gives me a compiler error:

Race.java:41: incompatible types
found   : java.util.Collection
required: java.util.ArrayList
finishingOrder = Collections.synchronizedCollection(new ArrayList(numberOfRaceCars));

Here is the relevant code:

public class Race implements RaceListener {
    private Thread[] racers;
    private ArrayList finishingOrder;

    //Make an ArrayList to hold RaceCar objects to determine winners
    finishingOrder = Collections.synchronizedCollection(new ArrayList(numberOfRaceCars));

    //Fill array with RaceCar objects
    for(int i=0; i<numberOfRaceCars; i++) {
    racers[i] = new RaceCar(laps, inputs[i]);

        //Add this as a RaceListener to each RaceCar
        ((RaceCar) racers[i]).addRaceListener(this);
    }

    //Implement the one method in the RaceListener interface
    public void addFinisher(RaceCar finisher) {
        finishingOrder.add(finisher);
    }

What I need to know is, am I using a correct approach and if not, what should I use to make my code thread-safe? Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

Use Collections.synchronizedList().

Ex:

Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList<YourClassNameHere>())