Determine which thread owns a monitor

Question

Is there a way to tell, for a Java object, which Thread (or null) currently owns its monitor? Or at least a way to tell if the current thread owns it?

Answer 1

Instead of using synchronized, you might want to take a look at ReentrantLock, especially its methods getOwner() and isHeldByCurrentThread(). It takes a bit more discipline to use, though, since you explicitly have to unlock() it, preferrably in a finally block.