1) Reader&Writer Problem Intro
? ? 1> Reader&Writer task may share a resource, say a DB.
? ? 2> Many Reader may access a DB without fear of data corruption.
? ? 3> Only one Writer may access a DB at a time.
? ? Read Access: If no threads are writing, and no threads have acquired the write access.
? ? Write Access: If no threads are reading or writing.
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2) Read&Write Lock
? ? 1> Read&Write Lock is especially useful for Reader&Writer Problem
? ? ? ? ?when there are many threads that read from a data structure and fewer threads that modify it.?
? ? 2> It makes sense to allow shared access for the readers. And a writer must still have exclusive access.
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3) Example
class="java">package edu.xmu.thread;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock.ReadLock;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock.WriteLock;
public class ReadeWriteLockTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
	Calculator calculator = new Calculator(2);
	Thread reader = new Thread(new Reader(calculator));
	Thread reader2 = new Thread(new Reader(calculator));
	Thread writer = new Thread(new Writer(calculator));
	reader.start();
	reader2.start();
	writer.start();
    }
}
class Reader implements Runnable {
    Calculator calculator;
    public Reader(Calculator calculator) {
	super();
	this.calculator = calculator;
    }
    @Override
    public void run() {
	while (true) {
	    int sum = calculator.getSum();
	    System.out.println("Thread: " + Thread.currentThread()
		    + " finished getSum(), sum = " + sum);
	    try {
		Thread.sleep((long) (1000 * Math.random()));
	    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
		e.printStackTrace();
	    }
	}
    }
}
class Writer implements Runnable {
    Calculator calculator;
    public Writer(Calculator calculator) {
	super();
	this.calculator = calculator;
    }
    @Override
    public void run() {
	while (true) {
	    calculator.add((int) (10 * Math.random()));
	    try {
		Thread.sleep((long) (1000 * Math.random()));
	    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
		e.printStackTrace();
	    }
	}
    }
}
class Calculator {
    ReentrantReadWriteLock readWriteLock = new ReentrantReadWriteLock();
    ReadLock readLock;
    WriteLock writeLock;
    int sum;
    public Calculator(int sum) {
	super();
	this.sum = sum;
	readLock = readWriteLock.readLock();
	writeLock = readWriteLock.writeLock();
    }
    public void add(int i) {
	writeLock.lock();
	System.out.println("Thread: " + Thread.currentThread()
		+ " get into add(" + i + ")");
	try {
	    Thread.sleep((long) (1000 * Math.random()));
	} catch (InterruptedException e) {
	    e.printStackTrace();
	}
	sum += i;
	System.out.println("Thread: " + Thread.currentThread()
		+ " finished add(" + i + ")");
	writeLock.unlock();
    }
    public int getSum() {
	readLock.lock();
	System.out.println("Thread: " + Thread.currentThread()
		+ " get into getSum()");
	readLock.unlock();
	return sum;
    }
}
? ? Output:
Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] get into getSum() // thread-0 got read lock Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] get into getSum() // thread-1 got read lock Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 2 // thread-0 released read lock Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 2 // thread-1 released read lock Thread: Thread[Thread-2,5,main] get into add(4) // thread-2 got write lock and no other write/read lock may be got before this write lock released Thread: Thread[Thread-2,5,main] finished add(4) // thread-2 released write lock and other write/read lock may be got again. Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] get into getSum() Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] get into getSum() Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 6 Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 6 Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] get into getSum() Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 6 Thread: Thread[Thread-2,5,main] get into add(5) Thread: Thread[Thread-2,5,main] finished add(5) Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] get into getSum() Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] get into getSum() Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 11 Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 11 Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] get into getSum() Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 11 Thread: Thread[Thread-2,5,main] get into add(1) Thread: Thread[Thread-2,5,main] finished add(1) Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] get into getSum() Thread: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 12 Thread: Thread[Thread-2,5,main] get into add(6) Thread: Thread[Thread-2,5,main] finished add(6) Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] get into getSum() Thread: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] finished getSum(), sum = 18
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Reference Links:
1)?http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~fredk/Courses/cs422/sp03/Lectures/concurrency2.pdf
2)?http://tutorials.jenkov.com/java-concurrency/read-write-locks.html
3)?http://java.dzone.com/news/java-concurrency-read-write-lo
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