Small Doubt on Threads

[Vepa Sritej]

Pls help me with this small doubt:

When notify() is called on an object will the thread waiting on the object comes to Runnable state immediately or will it come to runnable when the lock is released by the currently holding thread.

Pls help Thanks in advance

[Henry Wong]

Originally posted by Vepa Sritej:
Pls help me with this small doubt:

When notify() is called on an object will the thread waiting on the object comes to Runnable state immediately or will it come to runnable when the lock is released by the currently holding thread.

Pls help Thanks in advance

The thread that got the notification doesn't immediately run -- it still has to reacquire the lock before it can return from the wait() method.

Of course, other issues (like priority) may also prevent it from running too.

Henry

[Burkhard Hassel]

Hi Vepa,

I think the second is correct, the notified thread has to wait for the lock being released.
And notify() will not release the key, the thread calling notify has to leave the sync block first. If he's the one having that lock.

Api says about this:
java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/Object.html#notify()
Second paragraph:
"The awakened thread will not be able to proceed until the current thread relinquishes the lock on this object."


Yours,
Bu.

[Vepa Sritej]

Thanks Burkhard,

thats what i thought but in one of the mock exams ive encountered a question stating " when will the thread enters the runnable state and the answer given is "when notify() is called". Im doubtful if this is an absolute answer.

[Aniket Patil]

It is assumed that you call notify() just before the end of your synchronized block. But again, it's not a canonical answer as explained above.