http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singleton_pattern
Lazy initialization
This method uses double-checked locking, which should not be used prior to J2SE 5.0, as it is vulnerable to subtle bugs. The problem is that an out-of-order write may allow the instance
reference to be returned before the Singleton
constructor is executed.[8]
public class SingletonDemo { private static volatile SingletonDemo instance = null; private SingletonDemo() { } public static SingletonDemo getInstance() { if (instance == null) { synchronized (SingletonDemo .class){ if (instance == null) { instance = new SingletonDemo (); } } } return instance; } }
There is much simpler and cleaner version, however:
public class SingletonDemo { private static SingletonDemo instance = null; private SingletonDemo() { } public static synchronized SingletonDemo getInstance() { if (instance == null) { instance = new SingletonDemo (); } return instance; } }
Eager initialization
If the program will always need an instance, or if the cost of creating the instance is not too large in terms of time/resources, the programmer can switch to eager initialization, which always creates an instance:
public class Singleton { private static final Singleton instance = new Singleton(); private Singleton() {} public static Singleton getInstance() { return instance; } }
This method has a number of advantages:
- The instance is not constructed until the class is used.
- There is no need to
synchronize
thegetInstance()
method, meaning all threads will see the same instance and no (expensive) locking is required. - The
final
keyword means that the instance cannot be redefined, ensuring that one (and only one) instance ever exists.
Static block initialization
Some authors[9] refer to a similar solution allowing some pre-processing (e.g. for error-checking). In this sense, the traditional approach could be seen as a particular case of this one, as the class loader would do exactly the same processing.
public class Singleton { private static final Singleton instance; static { try { instance = new Singleton(); } catch (IOException e) { throw new RuntimeException("Darn, an error occurred!", e); } } public static Singleton getInstance() { return instance; } private Singleton() { // ... } }
The solution of Bill Pugh
University of Maryland Computer Science researcher Bill Pugh has written about the code issues underlying the Singleton pattern when implemented in Java.[10] Pugh's efforts on the "Double-checked locking" idiom led to changes in the Java memory model in Java 5 and to what is generally regarded as the standard method to implement Singletons in Java. The technique known as the initialization on demand holder idiom, is as lazy as possible, and works in all known versions of Java. It takes advantage of language guarantees about class initialization, and will therefore work correctly in all Java-compliant compilers and virtual machines.
The nested class is referenced no earlier (and therefore loaded no earlier by the class loader) than the moment that getInstance() is called. Thus, this solution is thread-safe without requiring special language constructs (i.e. volatile
or synchronized
).
public class Singleton { // Private constructor prevents instantiation from other classes private Singleton() { } /** * SingletonHolder is loaded on the first execution of Singleton.getInstance() * or the first access to SingletonHolder.INSTANCE, not before. */ private static class SingletonHolder { public static final Singleton INSTANCE = new Singleton(); } public static Singleton getInstance() { return SingletonHolder.INSTANCE; } }