What does 'synchronized' mean?

Question

I have some questions regarding the usage and significance of the synchronized keyword.

• What is the significance of the synchronized

Answer 1

Synchronized normal method equivalent to Synchronized statement (use this)

class A {
    public synchronized void methodA() {
        // all function code
    }

    equivalent to

    public void methodA() {
        synchronized(this) {
             // all function code
        }
    } 
}

Synchronized static method equivalent to Synchronized statement (use class)

class A {
    public static synchronized void methodA() {
        // all function code
    }

    equivalent to

    public void methodA() {
        synchronized(A.class) {
             // all function code
        }
    } 
}

Synchronized statement (using variable)

class A {
    private Object lock1 = new Object();

    public void methodA() {
        synchronized(lock1 ) {
             // all function code
        }
    } 
}

For synchronized, we have both Synchronized Methods and Synchronized Statements. However, Synchronized Methods is similar to Synchronized Statements so we just need to understand Synchronized Statements.

=> Basically, we will have

synchronized(object or class) { // object/class use to provides the intrinsic lock
   // code 
}

Here is 2 think that help understanding synchronized

• Every object/class have an intrinsic lock associated with it.
• When a thread invokes a synchronized statement, it automatically acquires the intrinsic lock for that synchronized statement's object and releases it when the method returns. As long as a thread owns an intrinsic lock, NO other thread can acquire the SAME lock => thread safe.

=> When a thread A invokes synchronized(this){// code 1} => all the block code (inside class) where have synchronized(this) and all synchronized normal method (inside class) is locked because SAME lock. It will execute after thread A unlock ("// code 1" finished).

This behavior is similar to synchronized(a variable){// code 1} or synchronized(class).

SAME LOCK => lock (not depend on which method? or which statements?)

Use synchronized method or synchronized statements?

I prefer synchronized statements because it is more extendable. Example, in future, you only need synchronized a part of method. Example, you have 2 synchronized method and it don't have any relevant to each other, however when a thread run a method, it will block the other method (it can prevent by use synchronized(a variable)).

However, apply synchronized method is simple and the code look simple. For some class, there only 1 synchronized method, or all synchronized methods in the class in relevant to each other => we can use synchronized method to make code shorter and easy to understand

Note

(it not relevant to much to synchronized, it is the different between object and class or none-static and static).

• When you use synchronized or normal method or synchronized(this) or synchronized(non-static variable) it will synchronized base on each object instance.
• When you use synchronized or static method or synchronized(class) or synchronized(static variable) it will synchronized base on class

Reference

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/syncmeth.html https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/locksync.html

Hope it help