Working with the AtoMiC ToolKit

The java.util.concurrent.atomic package is a collection of 12 subclasses that support operations on single variables that are thread-safe and lock-free. In this context, thread-safe refers to code that accesses or mutates a shared single variable without impeding on other threads executing on the variable at the same time. This superclass was introduced in Java 7.

Here is a list of the 12 subclasses in the AtoMiC ToolKit. The class names, as you would expect, are self-descriptive:

• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicIntegerArray
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicIntegerFieldUpdater<T>
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLongArray
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLongFieldUpdater<T>
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicMarkableReference<V>
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference<V>
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReferenceArray<E>
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReferenceFieldUpdater<T,V>
• java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicStampedReference<V>

The key to using the AtoMIC ToolKit is having an understanding of volatile variables. Volatile variables, fields, and array elements can be asynchronously modified by concurrent threads.

Here is a code snippet that demonstrates the use of the volatile keyword for an instance variable:

public class Sample {
  private static volatile Sample myVolatileVariable; // a volatile   
  //
instance     
  //variable

  // getter method
  public static Sample getVariable() { 
    if (myVolatileVariable != null) {
      return myVolatileVariable;
    }

    // this section executes if myVolatileVariable == null
    synchronized(Sample.class) {
      if (myVolatileVariable == null) {
        myVolatileVariable = new Sample();
      }
    }
    return null;
  }
}