Question

This code sometime throwing an Exception even i have used synchronized Method removeFirst within synchronized block of run method, I am adding and removing element on a synchronizedList.

public class NameDropper extends Thread {

    private NameList n1;

    public NameDropper(List list) {
        this.n1 = new NameList(list);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List l = Collections.synchronizedList(new LinkedList());
        NameDropper n = new NameDropper(l);
        n.n1.add("Ozymandias");
        Thread[] t = new NameDropper[10];
        for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
            t[i - 1] = new NameDropper(l);
            t[i - 1].setName("T" + Integer.toString(i - 1));
            t[i - 1].start();
        }
    }

    public void run() {
        synchronized (this) {
            try {
                Thread.sleep(50);
                String name = n1.removeFirst();
                System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getName() + ": "
                    + name);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
     }
}

class NameList {
    private List names = null;

    public NameList(List list) {
        this.names = list;
    }

    public synchronized void add(String name) {
        names.add(name);
    }

    public synchronized String removeFirst() {
        if (names.size() > 0)
            return (String) names.remove(0);
        else
            return null;
      }
}

The exception it is throwing:

T1: Ozymandias    
T2: null    
*Exception in thread "T3" java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0    
    at java.util.LinkedList.entry(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.LinkedList.remove(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.Collections$SynchronizedList.remove(Unknown Source)
    at NameList.removeFirst(NameDropper.java:57)*
T0: null    
T8: null    
*at NameDropper.run(NameDropper.java:33)*      
T6: null    
T4: null    
T9: null    
T7: null    
T5: null    

Answer 1

As pointed out by other people, you have a race condition because all of your threads are synchronized on themselves. You need a common object to synchronize on.

I would recommend that you synchronize on the list itself. It will mean that any instances that are contending for the same list are blocked on each other and any threads that are not, will not be blocked. Your add and remove methods should be:

public void add(String name) {
    synchronized (name) {
        names.add(name);
    }
}

public String removeFirst() {
    synchronized (name) {
        if (names.size() > 0)
            return (String) names.remove(0);
        else
            return null;
    }
}