public class ReentrantReadWriteLock extends Object implements ReadWriteLock, Serializable
ReadWriteLock supporting similar
 semantics to ReentrantLock.
 This class has the following properties:
This class does not impose a reader or writer preference ordering for lock access. However, it does support an optional fairness policy.
A thread that tries to acquire a fair read lock (non-reentrantly) will block if either the write lock is held, or there is a waiting writer thread. The thread will not acquire the read lock until after the oldest currently waiting writer thread has acquired and released the write lock. Of course, if a waiting writer abandons its wait, leaving one or more reader threads as the longest waiters in the queue with the write lock free, then those readers will be assigned the read lock.
A thread that tries to acquire a fair write lock (non-reentrantly)
 will block unless both the read lock and write lock are free (which
 implies there are no waiting threads).  (Note that the non-blocking
 ReentrantReadWriteLock.ReadLock.tryLock() and ReentrantReadWriteLock.WriteLock.tryLock() methods
 do not honor this fair setting and will immediately acquire the lock
 if it is possible, regardless of waiting threads.)
 
This lock allows both readers and writers to reacquire read or
 write locks in the style of a ReentrantLock. Non-reentrant
 readers are not allowed until all write locks held by the writing
 thread have been released.
 
Additionally, a writer can acquire the read lock, but not vice-versa. Among other applications, reentrancy can be useful when write locks are held during calls or callbacks to methods that perform reads under read locks. If a reader tries to acquire the write lock it will never succeed.
Reentrancy also allows downgrading from the write lock to a read lock, by acquiring the write lock, then the read lock and then releasing the write lock. However, upgrading from a read lock to the write lock is not possible.
The read lock and write lock both support interruption during lock acquisition.
Condition support
 The write lock provides a Condition implementation that
 behaves in the same way, with respect to the write lock, as the
 Condition implementation provided by
 ReentrantLock.newCondition() does for ReentrantLock.
 This Condition can, of course, only be used with the write lock.
 
The read lock does not support a Condition and
 readLock().newCondition() throws
 UnsupportedOperationException.
 
This class supports methods to determine whether locks are held or contended. These methods are designed for monitoring system state, not for synchronization control.
Serialization of this class behaves in the same way as built-in locks: a deserialized lock is in the unlocked state, regardless of its state when serialized.
Sample usages. Here is a code sketch showing how to perform lock downgrading after updating a cache (exception handling is particularly tricky when handling multiple locks in a non-nested fashion):
 
 class CachedData {
   Object data;
   volatile boolean cacheValid;
   final ReentrantReadWriteLock rwl = new ReentrantReadWriteLock();
   void processCachedData() {
     rwl.readLock().lock();
     if (!cacheValid) {
       // Must release read lock before acquiring write lock
       rwl.readLock().unlock();
       rwl.writeLock().lock();
       try {
         // Recheck state because another thread might have
         // acquired write lock and changed state before we did.
         if (!cacheValid) {
           data = ...
           cacheValid = true;
         }
         // Downgrade by acquiring read lock before releasing write lock
         rwl.readLock().lock();
       } finally {
         rwl.writeLock().unlock(); // Unlock write, still hold read
       }
     }
     try {
       use(data);
     } finally {
       rwl.readLock().unlock();
     }
   }
 }
 ReentrantReadWriteLocks can be used to improve concurrency in some
 uses of some kinds of Collections. This is typically worthwhile
 only when the collections are expected to be large, accessed by
 more reader threads than writer threads, and entail operations with
 overhead that outweighs synchronization overhead. For example, here
 is a class using a TreeMap that is expected to be large and
 concurrently accessed.
   
 class RWDictionary {
   private final Map<String, Data> m = new TreeMap<String, Data>();
   private final ReentrantReadWriteLock rwl = new ReentrantReadWriteLock();
   private final Lock r = rwl.readLock();
   private final Lock w = rwl.writeLock();
   public Data get(String key) {
     r.lock();
     try { return m.get(key); }
     finally { r.unlock(); }
   }
   public String[] allKeys() {
     r.lock();
     try { return m.keySet().toArray(); }
     finally { r.unlock(); }
   }
   public Data put(String key, Data value) {
     w.lock();
     try { return m.put(key, value); }
     finally { w.unlock(); }
   }
   public void clear() {
     w.lock();
     try { m.clear(); }
     finally { w.unlock(); }
   }
 }
 This lock supports a maximum of 65535 recursive write locks
 and 65535 read locks. Attempts to exceed these limits result in
 Error throws from locking methods.
| Modifier and Type | Class and Description | 
|---|---|
| static class  | ReentrantReadWriteLock.ReadLockThe lock returned by method  readLock(). | 
| static class  | ReentrantReadWriteLock.WriteLockThe lock returned by method  writeLock(). | 
| Constructor and Description | 
|---|
| ReentrantReadWriteLock()Creates a new  ReentrantReadWriteLockwith
 default (nonfair) ordering properties. | 
| ReentrantReadWriteLock(boolean fair)Creates a new  ReentrantReadWriteLockwith
 the given fairness policy. | 
| Modifier and Type | Method and Description | 
|---|---|
| protected Thread | getOwner()Returns the thread that currently owns the write lock, or
  nullif not owned. | 
| protected Collection<Thread> | getQueuedReaderThreads()Returns a collection containing threads that may be waiting to
 acquire the read lock. | 
| protected Collection<Thread> | getQueuedThreads()Returns a collection containing threads that may be waiting to
 acquire either the read or write lock. | 
| protected Collection<Thread> | getQueuedWriterThreads()Returns a collection containing threads that may be waiting to
 acquire the write lock. | 
| int | getQueueLength()Returns an estimate of the number of threads waiting to acquire
 either the read or write lock. | 
| int | getReadHoldCount()Queries the number of reentrant read holds on this lock by the
 current thread. | 
| int | getReadLockCount()Queries the number of read locks held for this lock. | 
| protected Collection<Thread> | getWaitingThreads(Condition condition)Returns a collection containing those threads that may be
 waiting on the given condition associated with the write lock. | 
| int | getWaitQueueLength(Condition condition)Returns an estimate of the number of threads waiting on the
 given condition associated with the write lock. | 
| int | getWriteHoldCount()Queries the number of reentrant write holds on this lock by the
 current thread. | 
| boolean | hasQueuedThread(Thread thread)Queries whether the given thread is waiting to acquire either
 the read or write lock. | 
| boolean | hasQueuedThreads()Queries whether any threads are waiting to acquire the read or
 write lock. | 
| boolean | hasWaiters(Condition condition)Queries whether any threads are waiting on the given condition
 associated with the write lock. | 
| boolean | isFair()Returns  trueif this lock has fairness set true. | 
| boolean | isWriteLocked()Queries if the write lock is held by any thread. | 
| boolean | isWriteLockedByCurrentThread()Queries if the write lock is held by the current thread. | 
| ReentrantReadWriteLock.ReadLock | readLock()Returns the lock used for reading. | 
| String | toString()Returns a string identifying this lock, as well as its lock state. | 
| ReentrantReadWriteLock.WriteLock | writeLock()Returns the lock used for writing. | 
public ReentrantReadWriteLock()
ReentrantReadWriteLock with
 default (nonfair) ordering properties.public ReentrantReadWriteLock(boolean fair)
ReentrantReadWriteLock with
 the given fairness policy.fair - true if this lock should use a fair ordering policypublic ReentrantReadWriteLock.WriteLock writeLock()
ReadWriteLockwriteLock in interface ReadWriteLockpublic ReentrantReadWriteLock.ReadLock readLock()
ReadWriteLockreadLock in interface ReadWriteLockpublic final boolean isFair()
true if this lock has fairness set true.true if this lock has fairness set trueprotected Thread getOwner()
null if not owned. When this method is called by a
 thread that is not the owner, the return value reflects a
 best-effort approximation of current lock status. For example,
 the owner may be momentarily null even if there are
 threads trying to acquire the lock but have not yet done so.
 This method is designed to facilitate construction of
 subclasses that provide more extensive lock monitoring
 facilities.null if not ownedpublic int getReadLockCount()
public boolean isWriteLocked()
true if any thread holds the write lock and
         false otherwisepublic boolean isWriteLockedByCurrentThread()
true if the current thread holds the write lock and
         false otherwisepublic int getWriteHoldCount()
public int getReadHoldCount()
protected Collection<Thread> getQueuedWriterThreads()
protected Collection<Thread> getQueuedReaderThreads()
public final boolean hasQueuedThreads()
true return does not guarantee that any other
 thread will ever acquire a lock.  This method is designed
 primarily for use in monitoring of the system state.true if there may be other threads waiting to
         acquire the lockpublic final boolean hasQueuedThread(Thread thread)
true return does not guarantee
 that this thread will ever acquire a lock.  This method is
 designed primarily for use in monitoring of the system state.thread - the threadtrue if the given thread is queued waiting for this lockNullPointerException - if the thread is nullpublic final int getQueueLength()
protected Collection<Thread> getQueuedThreads()
public boolean hasWaiters(Condition condition)
true return does
 not guarantee that a future signal will awaken any
 threads.  This method is designed primarily for use in
 monitoring of the system state.condition - the conditiontrue if there are any waiting threadsIllegalMonitorStateException - if this lock is not heldIllegalArgumentException - if the given condition is
         not associated with this lockNullPointerException - if the condition is nullpublic int getWaitQueueLength(Condition condition)
condition - the conditionIllegalMonitorStateException - if this lock is not heldIllegalArgumentException - if the given condition is
         not associated with this lockNullPointerException - if the condition is nullprotected Collection<Thread> getWaitingThreads(Condition condition)
condition - the conditionIllegalMonitorStateException - if this lock is not heldIllegalArgumentException - if the given condition is
         not associated with this lockNullPointerException - if the condition is nullpublic String toString()
"Write locks ="
 followed by the number of reentrantly held write locks, and the
 String "Read locks =" followed by the number of held
 read locks. Submit a bug or feature 
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.
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