Question

if a long variable is declared as :-

private volatile long counter = 0;

now if i increment it using pre-increment operator, then would the operation be atomic ?

if yes, then will it be more efficient than java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong object’s increment ??

Answer 1

volatile keyword only solves visibility problem. You have to use AtomicLong or synchronized method/block for atomicity (Atomicity in concurrent programming).

One more article that came out today: Demonstrating when volatile is required