Synchronizing access to ArrayList - java

I am trying to calculate all the primes up to an arbitrary number by computing them in parallel. I'm aware that isPrime() can be improved from what it is now, but the main problem is that I can't synchronize access to the ArrayList that is storing the results. I've instantiated a dummy object "m" to serve as a monitor and control access to the array. Obviously I've made a mistake in reasoning somewhere because I get a java.util.ConcurrentModificationException every time. NB: gist
EDIT: updated to show completion after suggestions.
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class Main {
static final int MAX = 100000000;
static final int THREADS = Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors();
static final int ARRINITSIZE = 100000;
static ArrayList<Integer> primes = new ArrayList<Integer>(ARRINITSIZE);
public static void main(String[] args) {
Thread[] t = new Thread[THREADS];
PrimeRun.m = new Monitor();
for (int i=0; i<THREADS; i++) {
t[i] = new Thread(new PrimeRun(i) );
t[i].start();
}
// wait for threads to finish
for (int i=0; i<THREADS; i++)
t[i].join();
// NOTE: primes will be out of order because of random thread scheduling
for (int n : primes)
System.out.print("" + n + " ");
System.out.println();
}
static boolean isPrime(int n) {
if (n == 2 || n == 3 || n == 5) return true;
if (n <= 1 || (n&1) == 0) return false;
for (int i = 3; i*i <= n; i += 2)
if (n % i == 0) return false;
return true;
}
synchronized static void addPrime(int n) {
primes.add(n);
}
}
class PrimeRun implements Runnable {
public static Monitor m;
final int ID;
public PrimeRun(int i) {
ID = i;
}
public void run() {
for(int i=0; i < Main.MAX; i++) {
if(i % Main.THREADS == ID)
if(Main.isPrime(i))
m.addPrime(i);
}
}
}
class Monitor {
public synchronized void addPrime(int n) {
Main.addPrime(n);
}
}
I've included my ant script for convenience :)
<project default="cmp">
<target name="cmp"><javac srcdir="." debug="true"/></target>
<target name="run" depends="cmp"><java classname="Main" classpath="."/></target>
<target name="cln"><delete><fileset dir="." includes="*.class"/></delete></target>
</project>

How about declaring primes as
static List<Integer> primes = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList<Integer>(ARRINITSIZE));
And you should be able to get rid of the Monitor and the synchronized blocks... Oh and you will have to wait till the threads that calculates primes to finish before starting to print values from primes list
Edit
Here is the modified program where it just waits for the threads to finish
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class Main {
static final int MAX = 1000;
static final int THREADS = Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors();
static final int ARRINITSIZE = 100000;
static ArrayList<Integer> primes = new ArrayList<Integer>(ARRINITSIZE);
public static void main(String[] args) {
PrimeRun.m = new Monitor();
List<Thread> thread = new ArrayList<Thread>();
for (int i=0; i<THREADS; i++){
Thread t = new Thread(new PrimeRun(i));
t.start();
thread.add(t);
}
for (Thread t : thread) {
if (t.isAlive()){
try {
t.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
for (int n : primes)
System.out.print("" + n + " ");
}
static boolean isPrime(int n) {
if (n <= 1 || (n&1) == 0) return false;
if (n == 2 || n == 3 || n == 5) return true;
for (int i = 3; n*n <= i; i += 2)
if (n % i == 0) return false;
return true;
}
synchronized static void addPrime(int n) {
primes.add(n);
}
}
class PrimeRun implements Runnable {
public static Monitor m;
final int ID;
public PrimeRun(int i) {
ID = i;
}
public void run() {
for(int i=0; i < Main.MAX; i++) {
if(i % Main.THREADS == ID)
if(Main.isPrime(i))
m.addPrime(i);
}
}
}
class Monitor {
public synchronized void addPrime(int n) {
Main.addPrime(n);
}
}

You get ConcurrentModificationException because you are iterating over array while adding to it. It has nothing to do with multiple threads and will happen even in a single thread. But in your specific case it happens because threads are still adding primes when you start iterating over the list. To prevent that you must wait for all threads to finish before printing. To do it you can iterate array of threads and call join() on each one of them. Or you can use CountdownLatch.
List can be made synchronized via Collections.synchronizedList() as suggested in the other answer.

Reason fro ConcurrentModificationException is not bad synchronization. The reason is that you are modifying list during iteration on it.
The only iteration I found in your code is
for (int n : primes)
System.out.print("" + n + " ");
Here is what happens.
You are running several threads that do their job and add elements to collection. The code that runs threads is immediately following by code that iterates over list and prints its elements. So the iteration and your working threads are running simultaneously.
To fix this you should wait until all your working threads have finished and then print. Indeed you want to print the results only when all calculations have been finished. Check out method Thread.join() to implement this.
And obviously do what #maneesh recommended you, i.e. use Collections.synchronizedList() instead of your manual synchronization.

Related

What is wrong with the my semaphore application?

The program's aim is to simulate that multiple users add a number to the buffer from 0 to n. Then print the sum of numbers in the buffer. When I run the program, it seems that the threads never end. However, the thread will finish when I run the program in debug mode of Idea and step line by line. Also, I do not exactly know where I need to use my semaphore method P() and V() for mutual exclusion.
Version: JDK 8. I cannot use semaphore in the library.
Main.java
Buffer b = new Buffer(bufferSize);
ArrayList<user> us = new ArrayList<>();
for(int i = 0; i < num_users; i++) us.add(new user(i, elements, b));
ArrayList<Thread> th = new ArrayList<>();
for(int i = 0; i < num_users; i++)
{
th.add(new Thread(us.get(i)));
th.get(i).start();
}
user.java
public class user implements Runnable
{
private int id;
private int num_elements;
private semaphore mutex = new semaphore(1 );
public static Buffer buf;
public user(int i, int el, Buffer b)
{id = i; num_elements = el; buf = b;}
public void add_elements()
{//Add element to buffer, element value iterates from 0, 1, 2 .... num_elements
mutex.P();
int n = 0;
while (num_elements > 0)
{
buf.add(new Integer(n));
n++;
num_elements--;
}
mutex.V();
}
public void run()
{
add_elements();
}
}
Buffer.java
public class Buffer
{
private LinkedList<Object> buf_list;
private int elements; //Number of elements currently on the queue
private int buf_size; //Maximum number of elements allowed on queue
private semaphore mutex = new semaphore(1);
public Buffer(int n) //Queue creation, with n indicating the maximum capacity
{
buf_list = new LinkedList<Object>();
elements = 0;
buf_size = n;
}
public void add(Integer n)
{
mutex.P();
buf_list.add(n);
elements++;
mutex.V();
}
public void finalSummation()
{
if (elements == buf_size)
{
mutex.P();
int sum = 0;
for (Object n : buf_list)
sum += ((Integer)n).intValue();
mutex.V();
System.out.println("Count total: " + sum);
}
}
}
semaphore.java
public class semaphore
{
private int count = 0;
public semaphore(int init_count)
{
count = init_count;
}
public synchronized void P()
{
count -= 1;
while (count < 0)
{
try {
wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println("Error");
System.exit(-1);
}
}
}
public synchronized void V()
{
count += 1;
notifyAll();
}
}
I expect it will print the sum of buffer numbers, but the thread may not finish.
There are a few things that stand out as issues here.
1) your code is never calling the finalSummation method. So the "printing" of the result will never happen.
2) Buffer and each user are all creating their own semaphores. If you are attempting to allow multiple threads to update Buffer without colliding then you need to share the same semaphore. Remove the semaphore and the usage of it from the user class. Just let the Buffer instance control only one update at a time with its semaphore.
3) You don't need to check the semaphore in the finalSummation method. Presumably, all threads are done at that point. And to enforce that ...
4) Put code like this at the end of main
for(int i = 0; i < num_users; i++) {
th.get(i).join();
}
b.finalSummation();
5) A semaphore should manage a number of permits. Your semaphore is managing the number of instances waiting - that is a pretty much an irrelevant number for a semaphore. Change your P() and V() to acquire() and release() to be consistent with the pattern.
public static class semaphore {
private int permits = 0;
public semaphore(int permits) {
this.permits = permits;
}
public synchronized void acquire() {
while (permits < 1) {
try {
wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println("Error");
System.exit(-1);
}
}
permits--;
}
public void release() {
synchronized (this) {
permits += 1;
notifyAll();
}
}
}
I have put it together using the above answer if that helps. Please select above answer as the right answer.
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.LinkedList;
public class Main {
// assumed values
private static final int bufferSize = 5;
private static final int num_users = 10;
private static final int elements = 5;
public static void main(String[] args) {
Buffer b = new Buffer(bufferSize);
ArrayList<User> us = new ArrayList<>();
for(int i = 0; i < num_users; i++) us.add(new User(i, elements, b));
ArrayList<Thread> th = new ArrayList<>();
for(int i = 0; i < num_users; i++)
{
th.add(new Thread(us.get(i)));
th.get(i).start();
}
for(int i = 0; i < num_users; i++) {
try {
th.get(i).join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
b.finalSummation();
System.out.println("Exiting");
}
}
class User implements Runnable
{
private int id;
private int num_elements;
public static Buffer buf;
public User(int i, int el, Buffer b)
{id = i; num_elements = el; buf = b;}
public void add_elements()
{//Add element to buffer, element value iterates from 0, 1, 2 .... num_elements
int n = 0;
while (num_elements > 0)
{
buf.add(new Integer(n));
n++;
num_elements--;
}
}
public void run()
{
add_elements();
}
}
class Buffer
{
private LinkedList<Object> buf_list;
private int elements; //Number of elements currently on the queue
private int buf_size; //Maximum number of elements allowed on queue
private Semaphore mutex ;
public Buffer(int n) //Queue creation, with n indicating the maximum capacity
{
buf_list = new LinkedList<Object>();
elements = 0;
buf_size = n;
mutex = new Semaphore(buf_size);
}
public synchronized void add(Integer n)
{
mutex.acquire();
buf_list.add(n);
elements++;
mutex.release();
}
public void finalSummation()
{
int sum = 0;
System.out.println(buf_list);
for (Object n : buf_list)
sum += ((Integer)n).intValue();
System.out.println("Count total: " + sum);
}
}
class Semaphore {
private int permits = 0;
public Semaphore(int permits) {
this.permits = permits;
}
public synchronized void acquire() {
while (permits < 1) {
try {
wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println("Error");
System.exit(-1);
}
}
permits--;
}
public void release() {
synchronized (this) {
permits += 1;
notifyAll();
}
}
}

Java visibility and synchronization - Thinking in Java example

I read now Thinking in Java, chapter about atomicity and visibility. There is an example I don't understand.
public class SerialNumberGenerator {
private static volatile int serialNumber = 0;
public static int nextSerialNumber() {
return serialNumber++;
}
}
class CircularSet {
private int[] array;
private int len;
private int index = 0;
public CircularSet(int size) {
array = new int[size];
len = size;
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
array[i] = -1;
}
}
synchronized void add(int i) {
array[index] = i;
index = ++index % len;
}
synchronized boolean contains(int val) {
for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
if (array[i] == val)
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
public class SerialNumberChecker {
private static final int SIZE = 10;
private static CircularSet serials = new CircularSet(1000);
private static ExecutorService exec = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
static class SerialChecker implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
int serial = SerialNumberGenerator.nextSerialNumber();
if (serials.contains(serial)) {
System.out.println("Duplicate: " + serial);
System.exit(0);
}
serials.add(serial);
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
for (int i = 0; i < SIZE; i++) {
exec.execute(new SerialChecker());
}
}
}
example output:
Duplicate: 228
I don't understand how is it possible. Even method nextSerialNumber() is not synchronized and all thread generate different values each thread has own value of serial and each are different. So how is it possible to find duplicate. I cannot imagine of threads execution.
This example shows the post-increment operator is not atomic and not thread-safe.
What happens in this code is:
many (up to 100) threads are started, each executing the same code
in an infinite loop:
an unsynchronized method nextSerialNumber is called, which returns the result of the post-increment operator called on a static variable
a synchronized method contains is called, which checks if the returned value exists in the underlying collection
if yes, the program is terminated
if not, the value is added to the underlying collection
If the post-increment operation was thread-safe then the program would never print "Duplicate" and would never terminate,
since every thread would be getting a different serial number value. This is not the case as two threads
might get exactly the same serial number value.

Java threading issue?

I am wondering why the result is not 400 000. There are two threads why does it gets blocked?
class IntCell {
private int n = 0;
public int getN() {return n;}
public void setN(int n) {this.n = n;}
}
class Count extends Thread {
private static IntCell n = new IntCell();
#Override public void run() {
int temp;
for (int i = 0; i < 200000; i++) {
temp = n.getN();
n.setN(temp + 1);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
Count p = new Count();
Count q = new Count();
p.start();
q.start();
try { p.join(); q.join(); }
catch (InterruptedException e) { }
System.out.println("The value of n is " + n.getN());
}
}
Why there is so problem with that?
Because the way you increment your variable is not an atomic operation indeed to increment it you:
Get the previous value
Add one to this value
Set a new value
They are 3 operations not done atomically you should either us a synchronized block or use an AtomicInteger instead.
With a synchronized block it would be something like:
synchronized (n) {
temp = n.getN();
n.setN(temp + 1);
}
With an AtomicInteger you will need to rewrite your code as next:
class IntCell {
private final AtomicInteger n = new AtomicInteger();
public int getN() {return n.get();}
public void incrementN(int n) {this.n.addAndGet(n);}
}
for (int i = 0; i < 200000; i++) {
n.incrementN(1);
}
The approach with an AtomicInteger is non blocking so it will be faster
When two threads access one object at the same time, they interfere with each other, and the result is not deterministic. For example, imagine that p reads the value of n and gets, say, 0, then q reads the same value and gets 0 too, then p sets value to 1 and q also sets it to 1 (because it still thinks that it has value 0). Now the value of n is increased by 1, even though both counters "incremented" it once. You need to use synchronized block to make sure the counters won't interfere with each other. See https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/locksync.html for more.
The problem here is that you allow for race conditions. Consider the block inside the loop:
temp = n.getN();
n.setN(temp + 1);
The code context switch between the time you get the current N and by the time you increment it, making you set an "old" value. One way around this is to ensure the inner part of the loop runs in a synchronized block:
for (int i = 0; i < 200000; i++) {
synchronized (n) { / Here!
temp = n.getN();
n.setN(temp + 1);
}
}

Strange behaviour of synchronized

class TestSync {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
Counter counter1 = new Counter();
Counter counter2 = new Counter();
Counter counter3 = new Counter();
Counter counter4 = new Counter();
counter1.start();
counter2.start();
counter3.start();
counter4.start();
counter1.join();
counter2.join();
counter3.join();
counter4.join();
for (int i = 1; i <= 100; i++) {
if (values[i] > 1) {
System.out.println(String.format("%d was visited %d times", i, values[i]));
} else if (values[i] == 0) {
System.out.println(String.format("%d wasn't visited", i));
}
}
}
public static Integer count = 0;
public static int[] values = new int[105];
static {
for (int i = 0; i < 105; i++) {
values[i] = 0;
}
}
public static void incrementCount() {
count++;
}
public static int getCount() {
return count;
}
public static class Counter extends Thread {
#Override
public void run() {
do {
synchronized (count) {
incrementCount();
values[getCount()]++;
}
} while (getCount() < 100);
}
}
}
That is a code from one online course. My task is to make this code visit each element of array only once (only for elements from 1 to 100). So I have added simple synchronized block to run method. In case of using values inside of that statement everything works. But with count it doesn't want to work.
What the difference? Both of this objects are static fields inside of the same class. Also I have tried to make count volatile but it hasn't helped me.
PS: a lot of elements are visited 2 times and some of them even 3 times. In case of using values in synchronized all elements are visited only once!!!
Integer is immutable. The moment you call increment method, You get a new object and reference of count variable gets changed and hence leads to an issue.

Why does the FirstThread always run before the SecondThread in the following code?

public class TowThreads {
public static class FirstThread extends Thread {
public void run() {
for (int i = 2; i < 100000; i++) {
if (isPrime(i)) {
System.out.println("A");
System.out.println("B");
}
}
}
private boolean isPrime(int i) {
for (int j = 2; j < i; j++) {
if (i % j == 0)
return false;
}
return true;
}
}
public static class SecondThread extends Thread {
public void run() {
for (int j = 2; j < 100000; j++) {
if (isPrime(j)) {
System.out.println("1");
System.out.println("2");
}
}
}
private boolean isPrime(int i) {
for (int j = 2; j < i; j++) {
if (i % j == 0)
return false;
}
return true;
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new FirstThread().run();
new SecondThread().run();
}
}
The output shows that the FirstThread always runs before the SecondThread which is opposite from the article I read.
Why?Must the first thread run before the second thread? If not, could you show me a good example? Thanks.
Use start not run
public static void main(String[] args) {
new FirstThread().start();
new SecondThread().start();
}
If you use run method, you call first method and after second method. If you want to run parallel threads, you must use start method of thread.
Well it depends on the machine processor and jvm how they schedule your threads. Even in the article you have read it is clearly mentioned
"Not only may the results vary from machine to machine, but running the same program multiple times on the same machine may produce different results. Never assume one thread will do something before another thread does, unless you've used synchronization to force a specific ordering of execution"
you can't expect threads to behave in same way on all machines. It all depends how the machine schedules them.

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