What is race conditions and visibility in Java?

In Java, a race condition occurs when two or more threads attempt to change shared data at the same time. This can lead to inconsistent or unexpected results. Visibility, on the other hand, refers to the ability of one thread to see the latest changes made by another thread. Proper handling of race conditions and visibility is crucial for writing reliable multi-threaded applications.

To prevent race conditions, developers often use synchronization mechanisms like synchronized blocks or other concurrency utilities found in the Java `java.util.concurrent` package.

Visibility issues can arise when one thread updates a shared variable but another thread reads it before the change is reflected. Using the `volatile` keyword or synchronization constructs helps ensure that changes are visible to all threads.

Here’s an example of a race condition:


        // Example of a race condition in Java
        public class RaceConditionExample {
            private int counter = 0;

            public void increment() {
                counter++; // Increment operation is not atomic
            }

            public int getCounter() {
                return counter;
            }

            public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
                RaceConditionExample example = new RaceConditionExample();
                
                Thread t1 = new Thread(() -> {
                    for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
                        example.increment();
                    }
                });

                Thread t2 = new Thread(() -> {
                    for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
                        example.increment();
                    }
                });

                t1.start();
                t2.start();
                t1.join();
                t2.join();

                System.out.println("Final counter value: " + example.getCounter());
            }
        }

What is race conditions and visibility in Java?

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What is race conditions and visibility in Java?

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