How to use Volatile keyword in Java
What is Volatile variable in Java and when to use Volatile variable in Java is famous multi-threading interview question in Java interviews. Though many programmer knows what is a volatile variable but they fail on second part i.e. where to use volatile variable in Java as its not common to have clear understanding and hands-on on volatile in Java. In this tutorial we will address this gap by providing simple example of volatile variable in Java and discussing some when to use Volatile variable in Java. Any way Volatile keyword in Java is used as an indicator to Java compiler and Thread that do not cache value of this variable and always read it from main memory. So if you want to share any variable in which read and write operation is atomic by implementation e.g. read and write in int or boolean variable you can declare them as volatile variable. From Java 5 along with major changes like Autoboxing, Enum, Generics and Variable arguments , Java introduces some change in Java Memory Model (JMM), Which guarantees visibility of changes made by one thread to another also as "happens-before" which solves the problem of memory writes that happen in one thread can "leak through" and be seen by another thread. Java volatile keyword cannot be used with method or class and it can only be used with variable. Java volatile keyword also guarantees visibility and ordering , after Java 5 write to any volatile variable happens before any read into volatile variable. By the way use of volatile keyword also prevents compiler or JVM from reordering of code or moving away them from synchronization barrier.
This Java tutorial on Volatile keyword is in continuation of my article How HashMap works in Java and difference between HashMap and Hashtable in Java , How Garbage collection works in Java and How Synchronization works in Java if you haven’t read already you may find some useful information based on my experience in Java .
