Question

I am trying to set the difference between synchronized and unsynchronized methods.. I have tried following code

 class Counter {
    private int counter = 10;
    public int getCounter() {
        return counter;
    }

    public synchronized void doIncrementAndDecrement() {
        counter++;
        keepBusy(500);
        counter--;
    }

    public void keepBusy(int howLong) { // (D)
        long curr = System.currentTimeMillis();
        while (System.currentTimeMillis() < curr + howLong)
            ;
    }
}

class MyCounterThread extends Thread {

    Counter c;

    public MyCounterThread(Counter c, String name) {
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
        super(name);
        this.c = c;
        start();
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
        for (;;) {
            c.doIncrementAndDecrement();
            sleepForSometime();
            System.out.println(c.getCounter());
        }
    }

    public void sleepForSometime() { // (D)
        try {
            Thread.sleep(1000);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

public class UnSynchronizedExapmle {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
        Counter c = new Counter();
        MyCounterThread t1 = new MyCounterThread(c, "A");
        MyCounterThread t2 = new MyCounterThread(c, "B");
        MyCounterThread t3 = new MyCounterThread(c, "C");
    }
}

So above i have doIncrementAndDecrement() synchronized method..

So i expected the value of counter should be 10 every time. But this wont happen i have the output is like

10
10
11
10
10
10
10
11
10
10
11
10
11
11
10
10
11
10
11
10
10
10
11
10
10
11
10

So please help me why this happens.. Or any blog/article for explaining difference between synchronized and asynchronized methods

Answer 1

Your getCounter() method is not synchronized. So even though one thread might be locking the method, another thread can still access and print your counter variable