Question

I read this code in Thinking in Java and get puzzled:

    package generics;

    //: generics/Mixins.java
    import java.util.*;

    interface TimeStamped { long getStamp(); }

    class TimeStampedImp implements TimeStamped {
      private final long timeStamp;
      public TimeStampedImp() {
        timeStamp = new Date().getTime();
      }
      public long getStamp() { return timeStamp; }
    }

    interface SerialNumbered { long getSerialNumber(); }

    class SerialNumberedImp implements SerialNumbered {
      private static long counter = 1;
      private final long serialNumber = counter++;
      public long getSerialNumber() { return serialNumber; }
    }

    interface Basic {
      public void set(String val);
      public String get();
    }

    class BasicImp implements Basic {
      private String value;
      public void set(String val) { value = val; }
      public String get() { return value; }
    }

    class Mixin extends BasicImp
    implements TimeStamped, SerialNumbered {
      private TimeStamped timeStamp = new TimeStampedImp();
      private SerialNumbered serialNumber =
        new SerialNumberedImp();
      public long getStamp() { return timeStamp.getStamp(); }
      public long getSerialNumber() {
        return serialNumber.getSerialNumber();
      }
    }

    public class Mixins {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
        Mixin mixin1 = new Mixin(), mixin2 = new Mixin();
        mixin1.set("test string 1");
        mixin2.set("test string 2");
        System.out.println(mixin1.get() + " " +
          mixin1.getStamp() +  " " + mixin1.getSerialNumber());
        System.out.println(mixin2.get() + " " +
          mixin2.getStamp() +  " " + mixin2.getSerialNumber());
        while(true)System.out.println(new Date().getTime());
      }
    } /* Output: (Sample)
    test string 1 1132437151359 1
    test string 2 1132437151359 2
    *///:~

Why are the values returned of getStamp() the same? (1132437151359 == 1132437151359)?
Two objects are created and they have different propoties created in different time, so Why?

Answer 1

The expression new Date().getTime() is a slow way of doing System.currentTimeMillis() which has a minimum resolution of one milli-seconds (but can be as much as 16 ms on some OSes)

This means if the method is called less than one milli-second apart it can give the same result.

A better option is to use AtomicLong.getAndIncrement() for ids.