In this example we will discuss about the class java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch. java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch is a synchronization mechanism that allows one or more threads to wait until a set of operations being performed in other threads completes.
1. How CountDownLatch works
A java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch is initialized with a given count. The constructor of java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch is defined as follows:
CountDownLatch(int count)
Constructs a CountDownLatch initialized with the given count.
Then, the await() method blocks the main thread until the current count reaches zero. This will happen after continuous invocations of the countDown() method, which decrements the latch counter. When this latch counter reaches zero, all waiting threads are released and any subsequent invocations of await return immediately.
2. CountDownLatch example
In this section we will show a simple example of using java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch.
First, create a java class named CountDownLatchExample.java with the following code:
CountDownLatchExample.java
package com.javacodegeeks.java.util.concurrent.countdownlatch;
import java.util.concurrent.*;
public class CountDownLatchExample {
public static void main(String args[]) {
final CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(3);
Thread testThread1 = new Thread(new TestThread("FirstThread", latch));
Thread testThread2 = new Thread(new TestThread("SecondThread", latch));
Thread testThread3 = new Thread(new TestThread("ThirdThread", latch));
testThread1.start();
testThread2.start();
testThread3.start();
try {
latch.await();
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
}
System.out.println("All threads have started");
}
}
In the main thread, we initialize the CountDownLatch with count 3 and we start three other threads. The main thread will be blocked until the count reaches zero.
Also, create a java class named TestThread.java with the following code:
TestThread.java
package com.javacodegeeks.java.util.concurrent.countdownlatch;
import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
public class TestThread extends Thread {
private String name;
private CountDownLatch latch;
public TestThread(String name, CountDownLatch latch) {
this.name = name;
this.latch = latch;
}
public void run() {
System.out.println(name + " : started");
try {
Thread.sleep(2000);
} catch (Exception e) {
}
latch.countDown();
}
}
Εach of the other threads decrement the CountDownLatch.
If we run the above code, we will have the following results:
- Output:
FirstThread : started SecondThread : started ThirdThread : started All threads have started
Download the source code
This was an example of how to use java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch class.
You can download the full source code of this example here : CountDownLatchExample
