java volatile

It's probably fair to say that on the whole, the volatile keyword in Java is poorly documented, poorly understood, and rarely used. To make matters worse, its formal definition actually changed as of Java 5. On this and the following pages, we will cut through this mess and look at what the Java volatile keyword does and when it is used. We will also compare it to other mechanisms available in Java which perform similar functions but under subtly different other circumstances.

What is the Java volatile keyword?

Essentially, volatile is used to indicate that a variable's value will be modified by different threads.

Declaring a volatile Java variable means:

• The value of this variable will never be cached thread-locally: all reads and writes will go straight to "main memory";
• Access to the variable acts as though it is enclosed in a synchronized block, synchronized on itself.

We say "acts as though" in the second point, because to the programmer at least (and probably in most JVM implementations) there is no actual lock object involved. Here is how synchronized and volatile compare:

Difference between synchronized and volatile

Characteristic	Synchronized	Volatile
Type of variable	Object	Object or primitive
Null allowed?	No	Yes
Can block?	Yes	No
All cached variables synchronized on access?	Yes	From Java 5 onwards
When synchronization happens	When you explicitly enter/exit asynchronized block	Whenever a volatile variable is accessed.
Can be used to combined several operations into an atomic operation?	Yes	Pre-Java 5, no. Atomic get-set of volatiles possible in Java 5.

Volatile variables in Java 5

We mentioned that in Java 5, the meaning of volatile has been tightened up. We'll come back to this issue in a moment. First, we'll look at a typical example of using volatile. Later, we'll look at topics such as:

• the tighter definition of volatile in Java 5;
• atomic updates to volatile variables, useful in concurrent programming and possible as of Java 5;
• a summary of when to use volatile, along with some typical Java bugs involving the volatile keyword.