DBDaniel
Benitez
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Concurrency in Java

April 12, 20222 min read

Java provides rich APIs for handling multithreading and concurrent programming. These allow programs to make better use of system resources and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

⚠️ Concurrency is powerful but hard to get right — race conditions and deadlocks can ruin your day!

Creating Threads

public class MyThread extends Thread {
    public void run() {
        System.out.println("Running in thread: " + Thread.currentThread().getName());
    }
}
Thread t = new MyThread();
t.start();

Using Runnable

Runnable task = () -> System.out.println("Runnable Task");
new Thread(task).start();

Thread Lifecycle

  1. New
  2. Runnable
  3. Running
  4. Blocked/Waiting
  5. Terminated

Synchronization

public synchronized void increment() {
    count++;
}

Locks and Executors

Lock lock = new ReentrantLock();
lock.lock();
try {
    // critical section
} finally {
    lock.unlock();
}
ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2);
executor.submit(() -> doWork());
executor.shutdown();

Common Pitfalls

  • Race Conditions
  • Deadlocks
  • Starvation

❗ Always consider thread safety when working with shared resources.

Summary

Java offers both high-level and low-level concurrency APIs. Learn to use them effectively to build performant, responsive apps.

🔍 “Concurrency is not parallelism.” – Rob Pike

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