Question

Say, my application has n number of threads trying to read the same collection object, say a List. Will there be any race-codition or dead-lock or any similar problems ? In other words, Is it necessary to lock the List for read only operation ?

Answer 1

It totally depends on you whether you want to restrict the number of users or not. Normally if you see excel files in Windows, when it is shared across network, a maximum of 10 people can open it for reading at a time. This number can be increased to any number or for that matter there need not be any restriction at all. It is your wish as a programmer whether you want to restrict or not. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that if the file is on a server and if 1 million read requests are coming every second, if there is no restriction imposed, it is likely that your system will slow down and it will not be able to serve anyone. Instead if you impose locking say that only 100 users can read it at a time, you can be sure that your system will not be overloaded. This is a real time scenario I am explaining considering the worst case.

But If you are asking it only for learning sake, I would say it is not required. If n number of users are opening the same file for reading, ideally speaking you can give access to all the n users to read the collection object. No synchronisation mechanism is needed. When there is no synchronisation there will be no dead lock or anything.

Hope this removes your confusion. Thanks.