Remember to synchronize when iterating streams from a synchronized Collection

When iterating collections created via Collections.synchronizedList for instance, you are required to obtain a lock on the actual list before doing so. So you normally end up with code similar to:

List list = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList());
synchronized (list) {
  Iterator i = list.iterator(); // Must be in synchronized block
  while (i.hasNext())
      foo(i.next());
}

This requirement is documented in the javadocs.

Since lambdas and streams are being more widely used, it is important to remind that when iterating via a stream we also need to obtain a lock on the synchronized collection created.

List list = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList());
synchronized (list) {
  list.stream()
    .anyMatch(...)
}

Here’s an example from Zalando Nakadi Event Broker.

Happy hacking!

Categories: Blog

Tags: Programming, Java, Opensource