Why is synchronized block better than synchronized method?

Question

I have started learning synchronization in threading.

Synchronized method:

public class Counter {

   private static int count = 0;

   public stati         


        

Answer 1

Define 'better'. A synchronized block is only better because it allows you to:

1. Synchronize on a different object
2. Limit the scope of synchronization

Now your specific example is an example of the double-checked locking pattern which is suspect (in older Java versions it was broken, and it is easy to do it wrong).

If your initialization is cheap, it might be better to initialize immediately with a final field, and not on the first request, it would also remove the need for synchronization.