When should you prefer Callable and Future and when should you avoid it?

In Java, Callable and Future are often preferred when dealing with concurrent tasks that may return results or can throw exceptions. They are particularly useful if you need to execute tasks asynchronously and retrieve their results at a later point in time.

When to Prefer Callable and Future

When you need to return a result from a concurrent task.
When the task may throw exceptions that you want to handle gracefully.
When you want to manage the execution of multiple tasks, possibly with a thread pool.
When you require the ability to cancel tasks that may take too long.

When to Avoid Callable and Future

For simple tasks where the overhead of creating Callable and Future objects is unnecessary.
When you do not need results or exception handling.
In cases where a simple Runnable suffices.

Example


    // Example of using Callable and Future in Java
    import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
    import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
    import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
    import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
    import java.util.concurrent.Future;

    public class CallableFutureExample {
        public static void main(String[] args) {
            ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2);
            Callable task = () -> {
                // Simulate a long-running task
                Thread.sleep(2000);
                return 42;
            };

            Future future = executor.submit(task);

            try {
                // Waiting for the task to complete and retrieving the result
                Integer result = future.get();
                System.out.println("The result is: " + result);
            } catch (InterruptedException | ExecutionException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } finally {
                executor.shutdown();
            }
        }
    }

When should you prefer Callable and Future and when should you avoid it?

When to Prefer Callable and Future

When to Avoid Callable and Future

Example

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When should you prefer Callable and Future and when should you avoid it?

When to Prefer Callable and Future

When to Avoid Callable and Future

Example

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