Java Language Using ThreadPoolExecutor in MultiThreaded applications. Defining Asynchronous Tasks Inline using Lambdas

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Example

While good software design often maximizes code reusability, sometimes it can be useful to define asynchronous tasks inline in your code via Lambda expressions to maximize code readability.

In this example, we will create a single class which contains a main() method. Inside this method, we will use Lambda expressions to create and execute instances of Callable and Runnable<T>.

AsyncExample3.java

import lombok.extern.java.Log;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.*;

@Log
public class AsyncExample3 {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ExecutorService executorService = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
        List<Future<Integer>> futures = new ArrayList<>();
        for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++){
            final int index = i;
            executorService.execute(() -> {
                int timeout = getTimeout();
                log.info(String.format("Runnable %d has been submitted and will sleep for %d seconds", index, timeout));
                try {
                    TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(timeout);
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    log.warning(e.getMessage());
                }
                log.info(String.format("Runnable %d has finished sleeping", index));
            });
            Future<Integer> submittedFuture = executorService.submit(() -> {
                int timeout = getTimeout();
                log.info(String.format("Callable %d will begin sleeping", index));
                try {
                    TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(timeout);
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    log.warning(e.getMessage());
                }
                log.info(String.format("Callable %d is done sleeping", index));
                return timeout;
            });
            futures.add(submittedFuture);
        }
        executorService.shutdown();
        while(!futures.isEmpty()){
            for(int j = 0; j < futures.size(); j++){
                Future<Integer> f = futures.get(j);
                if(f.isDone()){
                    try {
                        int timeout = f.get();
                        log.info(String.format("A task just completed after sleeping for %d seconds", timeout));
                        futures.remove(f);
                    } catch (InterruptedException | ExecutionException e) {
                        log.warning(e.getMessage());
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    public static int getTimeout(){
        return ThreadLocalRandom.current().nextInt(1, 20);
    }
}

Observations of Note:

There are several things to note in the output above,

  1. Lambda expressions have access to variables and methods which are available to the scope in which they are defined, but all variables must be final (or effectively final) for use inside a lambda expression.
  2. We do not have to specify whether our Lambda expression is a Callable or a Runnable<T> explicitly, the return type is inferred automatically by the return type.


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