Java concurrency tutorial : CountDownLatch Example in Java - Concurrency Tutorial | Java multithreading tutorial

Java CountDownLatch Example
CountDownLatch in Java is a kind of synchronizer which allows one Thread  to wait for one or more Threads before starts processing. This is very crucial requirement and often needed in server side core Java application and having this functionality built-in as CountDownLatch greatly simplifies the development. CountDownLatch in Java is introduced on Java 5 along with other concurrent utilities like CyclicBarrier, Semaphore, ConcurrentHashMap and BlockingQueue in java.util.concurrent package. In this Java concurrency tutorial we will  what is CountDownLatch in Java, How CountDownLatch works in Java, an example of CountDownLatch in Java and finally some worth noting points about this concurrent utility. You can also implement same functionality using  wait and notify mechanism in Java but it requires lot of code and getting it write in first attempt is tricky,  With CountDownLatch this can  be done in just few lines. CountDownLatch also allows flexibility on number of thread for which main thread should wait, It can wait for one thread or n number of thread, there is not much change on code.  Key point is that you need to figure out where to use CountDownLatch in Java application which is not difficult if you understand What CountDownLatch do and How CountDownLatch works.


How CountDownLatch works in Java
CountDownLatch Example in Java 5 6 7CountDownLatch works in latch principle,  main thread will wait until Gate is open. One thread waits for n number of threads specified while creating CountDownLatch in Java. Any thread, usually main thread of application,  which calls CountDownLatch.await() will wait until count reaches zero or its interrupted by another Thread. All other thread are required to do count down by calling CountDownLatch.countDown() once they are completed or ready to the job. as soon as count reaches zero, Thread awaiting starts running. One of the disadvantage of CountDownLatch is that its not reusable once count reaches to zero you can not use CountDownLatch any more, but don't worry Java concurrency API has another concurrent utility called CyclicBarrier for such requirements.

CountDownLatch Exmaple in Java
In this section we will see a full featured real world example of using CountDownLatch in Java. In following CountDownLatch example, Java program requires 3 services namely CacheService, AlertService  and ValidationService  to be started and ready before application can handle any request and this is achieved by using CountDownLatch in Java.

import java.util.Date;
import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;

/**
 * Java program to demonstrate How to use CountDownLatch in Java. CountDownLatch is
 * useful if you want to start main processing thread once its dependency is completed
 * as illustrated in this CountDownLatch Example
 *
 *
 */
public class CountDownLatchDemo {

    public static void main(String args[]) {
       final CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(3);
       Thread cacheService = new Thread(new Service("CacheService", 1000, latch));
       Thread alertService = new Thread(new Service("AlertService", 1000, latch));
       Thread validationService = new Thread(new Service("ValidationService", 1000, latch));
    
       cacheService.start(); //separate thread will initialize CacheService
       alertService.start(); //another thread for AlertService initialization
       validationService.start();
    
       // application should not start processing any thread until all service is up
       // and ready to do there job.
       // Countdown latch is idle choice here, main thread will start with count 3
       // and wait until count reaches zero. each thread once up and read will do
       // a count down. this will ensure that main thread is not started processing
       // until all services is up.
    
       //count is 3 since we have 3 Threads (Services)
    
       try{
            latch.await();  //main thread is waiting on CountDownLatch to finish
            System.out.println("All services are up, Application is starting now");
       }catch(InterruptedException ie){
           ie.printStackTrace();
       }
    
    }
 
}

/**
 * Service class which will be executed by Thread using CountDownLatch synchronizer.
 */
class Service implements Runnable{
    private final String name;
    private final int timeToStart;
    private final CountDownLatch latch;
 
    public Service(String name, int timeToStart, CountDownLatch latch){
        this.name = name;
        this.timeToStart = timeToStart;
        this.latch = latch;
    }
 
    @Override
    public void run() {
        try {
            Thread.sleep(timeToStart);
        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
            Logger.getLogger(Service.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        }
        System.out.println( name + " is Up");
        latch.countDown(); //reduce count of CountDownLatch by 1
    }
 
}

Output:
ValidationService is Up
AlertService is Up
CacheService is Up
All services are up, Application is starting now

By looking at output of this CountDownLatch example in Java, you can see that Application is not started until all services started by individual Threads are completed.
When should we use CountDownLatch in Java :
Use CountDownLatch when one of Thread like main thread, require to wait for one or more thread to complete, before its start doing processing. Classical example of using CountDownLatch in Java  is any server side core Java application which uses services architecture,  where multiple services is provided by multiple threads and application can not start processing  until all services have started successfully as shown in our CountDownLatch example.


CountDownLatch in Java – Things to remember
Few points about Java CountDownLatch which is worth remembering:

1) You can not reuse CountDownLatch once count is reaches to zero, this is the main difference between CountDownLatch and CyclicBarrier, which is frequently asked in core Java interviews and multi-threading  interviews.

2) Main Thread wait on Latch by calling CountDownLatch.await() method while other thread calls CountDownLatch.countDown() to inform that they have completed.

That’s all on CountDownLatch example in Java. This is a very useful concurrency utility and if you master when to use CountDownLatch and how to use CountDownLatch you will be able to reduce good amount of complex concurrency control code written using wait and notify in Java.

Java Concurrency Tutorial : CyclicBarrier Example in Java 5 – Concurrency Tutorial | Jdk 1.5 java concurrency

Java CyclicBarrier Tutorial and Example
CyclicBarrier in Java is a synchronizer introduced in JDK 5 on java.util.Concurrent package along with other concurrent utility like Counting Semaphore, BlockingQueue, ConcurrentHashMap etc. CyclicBarrier is similar to CountDownLatch which we have seen in last article and allows multiple threads to wait for each other (barrier) before proceeding. Also difference between CoundDownLatch and CyclicBarrier is a also very popular multi-threading interview question in Java. CyclicBarrier is a natural requirement for concurrent program because it can be used to perform final part of task once individual tasks  are completed. All threads which wait for each other to reach barrier are called parties, CyclicBarrier is initialized with number of parties to be wait and threads wait for each other by calling CyclicBarrier.await() method which is a blocking method in Java and  blocks until all Thread or parties call await(). In general calling await() is shout out that Thread is waiting on barrier. await() is a blocking call but can be timed out or Interrupted by other thread. In this Java concurrency tutorial we will see simple example of CyclicBarrier on which three Threads will wait for each other before proceeding further.

Difference between CountDownLatch and CyclicBarrier in Java
In our last article we have see how CountDownLatch can be used to implement multiple threads waiting for each other. If you look at CyclicBarrier it also the does the same thing but there is a different you can not reuse CountDownLatch once count reaches zero while you can reuse CyclicBarrier by calling reset() method which resets Barrier to its initial State. What it implies that CountDownLatch is good for one time event like application start-up time and CyclicBarrier can be used to in case of recurrent event e.g. concurrently calculating solution of big problem etc. If you like to learn more about threading and concurrency in Java you can also check my post on When to use Volatile variable in Java  and How Synchronization works in Java.
CyclicBarrier in Java – Example
Java CyclicBarrier Example and Tutorial programHere is a simple example of CyclicBarrier in Java on which we initialize CyclicBarrier with 3 parties, means in order to cross barrier, 3 thread needs to call await() method. each thread calls await method in short duration but they don't proceed until all 3 threads reached barrier, once all thread reach barrier, barrier gets broker and each thread started there execution from that point. Its much clear with the output of following example of CyclicBarrier in Java:
import java.util.concurrent.BrokenBarrierException;
import java.util.concurrent.CyclicBarrier;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;

/**
 * Java program to demonstrate how to use CyclicBarrier in Java. CyclicBarrier is a
 * new Concurrency Utility added in Java 5 Concurrent package.
 *
 *
 */
public class CyclicBarrierExample {

    //Runnable task for each thread
    private static class Task implements Runnable {

        private CyclicBarrier barrier;

        public Task(CyclicBarrier barrier) {
            this.barrier = barrier;
        }

        @Override
        public void run() {
            try {
                System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getName() + " is waiting on barrier");
                barrier.await();
                System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getName() + " has crossed the barrier");
            } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                Logger.getLogger(CyclicBarrierExample.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
            } catch (BrokenBarrierException ex) {
                Logger.getLogger(CyclicBarrierExample.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
            }
        }
    }

    public static void main(String args[]) {

        //creating CyclicBarrier with 3 parties i.e. 3 Threads needs to call await()
        final CyclicBarrier cb = new CyclicBarrier(3, new Runnable(){
            @Override
            public void run(){
                //This task will be executed once all thread reaches barrier
                System.out.println("All parties are arrived at barrier, lets play");
            }
        });

        //starting each of thread
        Thread t1 = new Thread(new Task(cb), "Thread 1");
        Thread t2 = new Thread(new Task(cb), "Thread 2");
        Thread t3 = new Thread(new Task(cb), "Thread 3");

        t1.start();
        t2.start();
        t3.start();
    
    }
}

Output:

Thread 1 is waiting on barrier

Thread 3 is waiting on barrier

Thread 2 is waiting on barrier

All parties are arrived at barrier, lets play

Thread 3 has crossed the barrier

Thread 1 has crossed the barrier

Thread 2 has crossed the barrier

When to use CyclicBarrier in Java
Given the nature of CyclicBarrier it can be very handy to implement map reduce kind of task similar to fork-join framework of Java 7, where a big task is broker down into smaller pieces and to complete the task you need output from individual small task e.g. to count population of India you can have 4 threads which counts population from North, South, East and West and once complete they can wait for each other, When last thread completed there task, Main thread or any other thread can add result from each zone and print total population. You can use CyclicBarrier in Java :

1) To implement multi player game which can not begin until all player has joined.
2) Perform lengthy calculation by breaking it into smaller individual tasks, In general to implement Map reduce technique.

Important point of CyclicBarrier in Java
1. CyclicBarrier can perform a completion task once all thread reaches to barrier, This can be provided while creating CyclicBarrier.

2. If CyclicBarrier is initialized with 3 parties means 3 thread needs to call await method to break the barrier.
3. Thread will block on await() until all parties reaches to barrier, another thread interrupt or await timed out.
4. If another thread interrupt the thread which is waiting on barrier it will throw BrokernBarrierException as shown below:

java.util.concurrent.BrokenBarrierException
        at java.util.concurrent.CyclicBarrier.dowait(CyclicBarrier.java:172)
        at java.util.concurrent.CyclicBarrier.await(CyclicBarrier.java:327)

5.CyclicBarrier.reset() put Barrier on its initial state, other thread which is waiting or not yet reached barrier will terminate with java.util.concurrent.BrokenBarrierException.

That's all on CyclicBarrier in Java with Example. We have also seen difference between CountDownLatch and CyclicBarrier in Java and got some idea where we can use CyclicBarrier in Java Concurrent code.

Java hot concept : How class loading work in JVM | Class loading concept in Java

 When Class is loaded in Java
Class loading is done by ClassLoaders in Java which can be implemented to eagerly load a class as soon as another class references it or lazy load the class until a need of class initialization occurs. If Class is loaded before its actually being used it can sit inside before being initialized. I believe this may vary from JVM to JVM. While its guaranteed by JLS that a class will be loaded when there is a need of static initialization.

When a Class is initialized in Java
After class loading, initialization of class takes place which means initializing all static members of class. A Class is initialized in Java when :

1) an Instance of class is created using either new() keyword or using reflection using class.forName(), which may throw ClassNotFoundException in Java.

2) an static method of Class is invoked.
3) an static field of Class is assigned.
4) an static field of class is used which is not a constant variable.
5) if Class is a top level class and an assert statement lexically nested within class is executed.

Reflection can also cause initialization of class. Some methods of java.lang.reflect package may cause class to be initialized. JLS Strictly says that a class should not be initialized by any reason other than above.

How Class is initialized in Java
class loading and initialization in Java - When exampleNow we know what triggers initialization of a class in Java, which is precisely documented in Java language specification. Its also important to know in which order various fields (static and non static), block (static an non static), various classes (sub class and super class) and various interfaces (sub interface, implementation class and super interface) is initialized in Java. Infact many Core Java interview question and SCJP question based on this concept because it affect final value of any variable if its initialized on multiple places. Here are some of the rules of class initialization in Java:

1) Classes are initialized from top to bottom so field declared on top initialized before field declared in bottom
2) Super Class is initialized before Sub Class or derived class in Java
3) If Class initialization is triggered due to access of static field, only Class which has declared static field is initialized and it doesn't trigger initialization of super class or sub class even if static field is referenced by Type  of Sub Class, Sub Interface or by implementation class of interface.

4) interface initialization in Java doesn't cause super interfaces to be initialized.
5) static fields are initialized during static initialization of class while non static fields are initialized when instance of class is created. It means static fields are initialized before non static fields in Java.

6)non static fields are initialized by constructors in Java. sub class constructor implicitly call super class constructor before doing any initialization, which guarantees that non static or instance variables of super class is initialized before sub class.

Examples of  class initialization in Java:
Here is an example of when class is initialized in Java. In this example we will see which classes are initialized in Java.

/**
 * Java program to demonstrate class loading and initialization in Java.
 */
public class ClassInitializationTest {

    public static void main(String args[]) throws InterruptedException {

        NotUsed o = null; //this class is not used, should not be initialized
        Child t = new Child(); //initializing sub class, should trigger super class initialization
        System.out.println((Object)o == (Object)t);
    }
}

/**
 * Super class to demonstrate that Super class is loaded and initialized before Subclass.
 */
class Parent {
    static { System.out.println("static block of Super class is initialized"); }
    {System.out.println("non static blocks in super class is initialized");}
}

/**
 * Java class which is not used in this program, consequently not loaded by JVM
 */
class NotUsed {
    static { System.out.println("NotUsed Class is initialized "); }
}

/**
 * Sub class of Parent, demonstrate when exactly sub class loading and initialization occurs.
 */
class Child extends Parent {
    static { System.out.println("static block of Sub class is initialized in Java "); }
    {System.out.println("non static blocks in sub class is initialized");}
}

Output:
static block of Super class is initialized
static block of Sub class is initialized in Java
non static blocks in super class is initialized
non static blocks in sub class is initialized
false

Observation:
1) Super class is initialized before sub class in Java.
2) Static variables or blocks are initialized before non static blocks or fields.
3) Not used class is not initialized at all because its not been used, none of the cases mentioned on JLS or above which triggers initialization of class is not happened here.

Let's have a look on another example of class initialization in Java:

/**
 * Another Java program example to demonstrate class initialization and loading in Java.
 */

public class ClassInitializationTest {

    public static void main(String args[]) throws InterruptedException {

       //accessing static field of Parent through child, should only initialize Parent
       System.out.println(Child.familyName);
    }
}

class Parent {
    //compile time constant, accessing this will not trigger class initialization
    //protected static final String familyName = "Lawson";

    protected static String familyName = "Lawson";

    static { System.out.println("static block of Super class is initialized"); }
    {System.out.println("non static blocks in super class is initialized");}
}

Output:
static block of Super class is initialized
Lawson


Observation
1. Here class initialization occurs because static field is accessed which is not a compile time constant. had you declare "familyName" compile time constant using final keyword in Java (as shown in commented section) class initialization of super class would not have occurred.

2) Only super class is initialized even though static field is referenced using sub type.

There is another example of class initialization related to interface on JLS which explains clearly that initialization of sub interfaces does not trigger initialization of super interface. I highly recommend reading JLS 14.4 for understating  class loading and initialization in more detail.

That's all on When a class is initialized and loaded in Java. We have seen clear guidelines form JLS regarding class initialization. We have also seen the order on which super type and sub type are initialized and order of initialization for both static and non static fields and blocks in Java.

How synchronization works in java | synchorization working concept | point to remember during java synchronization interview question

Java Synchronization concept :

Every object has a intrinsic lock or monitor lock or simply we can say monitor . A thread can enter a sychronized method only if the thread can aquire the Object's lock. Once the thread aquires the lock automatically for a synchronized method , the thread enters into that method . As only one thread can own a lock of the object at a time, no other thread can own the same lock and enter into same synchronized method and other synchronized methods in the same object. The lock is released when the thread exits the synchronized method. The lock release occurs even if the return was caused by an uncaught exception. Now other thread can acquire the same lock to execute other synchronized methods or same method. When a thread releases an intrinsic lock, a happens-before relationship is established between that action and any subsequent acquistion of the same lock to ensure the reliable communication between threads.

There are two ways in which you can use synchronization to manage your threads of execution.
1. Synchronizing methods - Managing code at the method level .
eg. public synchronized void withdraw(int amount)
{code in method.}
2. Synchronizing statements(block of code) -Managing code at the block level.
eg. synchronized (object/class) { block of code }

Synchronized Methods

For protecting shared data / resource , no need to lock the data itself, we need to synchronize the methods that access that data / resource. You can make methods of a class mutual exclusive by declaring them using the keyword synchronized . You can make all the methods or some of the methods of a class synchronized depending upon the requirements. You have to synchronize those methods only that access / modify the shared data (eg. instance variables) or resources. All reads or writes to that object's variables by a thread are visible to other threads through synchronized methods.

Consider the above sample code for bank account.

class Account
{
private int balance;
private int accountNumber;
.........
public synchronized int getBalance()
{ return balance;
}

public synchronized void withdraw(int amount)
{
........
if (balance<amount)
{
throw new RuntimeException("Amount not available");
} balance -= amount;}

public void method3()
{
// code for the method3
}
}
 The above account class has three methods . Both withdraw() and getBalance() are synchronized and method3 is not synchronized. Now only one of the synchronized methods in a class object can execute at any one time . That means either withdraw() method or getBalance() method can be executed at any one time . method3 can always be executed by a thread. Unnecessary syncronization may reduce the performance of the program

Synchronizing Statement(s) (Blocks of code)

You can synchronize a statement or a block of code without synchronizing the whole method using the syntax given below . Synchronized statements must specify the object that provides the intrinsic lock. This is more useful because you can specify particular object that benefits from synchronization of the staments . When a thread enters the block that is synchronized on any given object , no other thread can enter other synchronized blocks or methods on the same object . Syntax is
synchronized(obj)
 {
 Block of code
 }

List list = Collections.synchronizedList(new ArrayList());
The above line returns a thread-safe list backed by the specified list . If one thread changes the list while another thread is traversing it through an Iterator, it will throw ConcurrentModificationException. To stop this exceptioin, Lock the entire List when you are iterating by using the synchronized block that synchronizes on the the returned list .
//block of code synchronized on list. So when the list is modified , it can't be traversed. When the list is iterated , this list can't be modified.

 synchronized(list) {
 Iterator iter = list.iterator();
while (iter.hasNext())
 doSomething(iter.next());
 }

You can also use , private lock object that is inaccessible outside, with synchronized block instead of using synchronized methods
private final Object lock1 = new Object();
 public void inc1() {
 synchronized(lock1) {
 c1++;
 }
 }

Synchronization can be considered expensive , because

1. Synchronization leads to poor performance.
a) The JVM takes time to make ordering of synchronization actions executing in different threads.
b) When a thread enters synchronized method, it has to acquire object's lock and releases when exits the method.
c) JMM (Java Memory Model) requires that the cached values to be invalidated immediately after the lock is acquired, and writing cache values back to main memory (flushing the cache) before it is released which ensures the proper inter-thread communication . Flushing the cache frequently can be expensive
2. Synchronized method can slow down the program execution , because synchronization does not allow concurrency . Only one thread is allowed at a time to enter into synchronized methods.
3. Synchronized methods may lead to deadlock

Summary points to remember on synchronization for Interview

1. The main objective of synchronization is to ensure that when several threads want access to a single resource , only one thread can access it at any given time.
2. Each object has only one lock.
3. Instance method gets lock on the Object where as static method get locks the Class in which the method is defined
4. Final fields and Immutable objects are thread-safe that requires no synchronization.
5. Constructors cannot be synchronized
6. If an object is visible to more than one thread, all reads or writes to that object's variables need to be done through synchronized methods.
6. Reentrant Synchronization : A thread can acquire a lock that it already owns which helps to invoke a method that also contains synchronized code
7. Alternative ways of synchronization are the use of classes in the java.util.concurrent package , declaring volatile variables that ensures all threads see a consistent value for the variable
8. The volatile modifier helps for reliable communication between threads but does not suuport for mutual exclusion
9. wait() method of object that can be called from synchronized methods or synchronized block to give up the lock i.e. to suspend the current thread until the notify() or notifyAll() method is called.

Complete program to test with synchronization and without Synchronization

import java.util.Random;
class Account {
private int balance;
private int accountNumber;
public Account(int accountNumber, int balance)
{
this.accountNumber=accountNumber;
this.balance=balance;
}
public synchronized int getBalance()
{
return balance;
}

public synchronized void withdraw(int amount) {
System.out.println("Accout Number = " + accountNumber + " " + Thread.currentThread().getName() + " needs " + amount);
try
{
Thread.sleep(30);
}catch(Exception e){ }

if (balance<amount)
{
System.out.println("Available Balance is = " + balance + " which is less than required amount " + amount);
throw new RuntimeException("Amount not available");
}
balance -= amount;
System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getName() + " Withdraws " + amount );
System.out.println( " Current balance = " + balance);
}
}

public class BankOperation1 implements Runnable {
private Account account = new Account(21120, 10000);
public static void main (String [] args) {
BankOperation1 wd = new BankOperation1();
Thread person1 = new Thread (wd) ;
Thread person2 = new Thread (wd) ;
person1.setName ("Johnson") ;
person2.setName ("Jacob") ;
person2.start () ;
person1.start () ;
}
public void run ( ) {
Random rndObj = new Random();
System.out.println("Available Balance= " + account.getBalance());
//for (int i= 1; i <= 100; i++)
//{
account.withdraw(7500) ;
//}
}
}

When I run the above code without synchronized methods , i got the below output rarely. Remove synchronized keyword from the above code for testing


The above output shows , both threads (Mr. Jacob & Mr. Jhonson) enters into withdraw () method . Both withdraws money Rs. 7500/- . and the changes made to balance variable by one thread are not communicated to other thread.

When I run the above code with synchronized methods, i got the below output every time


The above output shows , only one thread (either Mr. Jacob or Mr. Jhonson) enters into withdraw () method . The first thread is able to withdraw money Rs. 7500/- . and the changes made to balance variable by one thread is communicated to other thread.

Most Asked Java Interview Question in Various Software company in year 2012

Hi Friend , i have attended  java interview at many MNC IT company in Noida ,Delhi, Gurgaon, on basis below listed java interview question which asked many times. 

1) About current project that I am working?

2) Current Role & responsibilities in current project

3) Equals&Hascode?why need to implement these methods? How to implement?

4) How will you test for Equals method using Junit?

5) What is Reflex package in java?

5) What are the Java contracts defined to implement Equals&hashcode

6) What is Synchronization? How will you implement synchronization?

7) what is TreeSet?

8) Difference between ConcurrentHashMap and Synchronized Map? what is the best way to implement?

9) What is the easiest way to implement Sorted Set

10) What are the methods in Object class?

11) Difference between String,StringBuffer,StringBuilder

12) If the same path was given to Global Forward & Action Forward in struts config xml then which one will take the priority.

13) Struts Can have Multiple Struts_Config.xml

14) Where to declare and how declare multiple Struts config xmls

15) How to transfer the bean values between multiple jsps going throw action classes.

16) What is IOC?

17) What is Dependency Injection?

18) What are kinds of Dependency injection in Spring.

19) How to define Criteria?

20) What is SessionFactory?

21) How to get session Ojbect?

22) What is ThreadLocal?

24) what is XETransaction?

25) Difference between Pessimistic Concurrency Control and Optimistic Concurrency Control?

26) Implementation of Optimistic Concurrency Control?

27) what is difference between Local Transaction and Distributed Transaction.

For Answer read www.newserverside.blogspot.com regularly

How to tune SQL query in our appliction | Performance tuning of SQL Queries

Below Point need to tune SQL Queries

1.   Understanding of the Data, Business, and Application - it's almost impossible to fine-tune the SQl statements without having a proper understanding of the data managed by the application and the business handled by the application. The understanding of the application is of course of utmost importance. By knowing these things better, we may identify several instances where the data retrieval/modification by many SQL queries can simply be avoided as the same data might be available somewhere else, may be in the session of some other integrating application, and we can simply use that data in such cases. The better understanding will help you identify the queries which could be written better either by changing the tables involved or by establishing relationships among available table
2.     Using realistic test data - if the application is not being tested in the development/testing environments with the volume and type of data, which the application will eventually face in the production environment, then we can't be very sure about how the SQL queries of the application will really perform in actual business scenarios. Therefore, it's important to have the realistic data for development/testing purposes as well.
3.  Using Bind Variables, Stored Procs, and Packages - Using identical SQL statements (of course wherever applicable) will greatly improve the performance as the parsing step will get eliminated in such cases. So, we should use bind variables, stored procedures, and packages wherever possible to re-use the same parsed SQL statements.
4. Using the indexes carefully - Having indexes on columns is the most common method of enhancing performance, but having too many of them may degrade the performance as well. So, it's very critical to decide wisely about which all columns of a table we should create indexes on. Few common guidelines are:- creating indexes on the columns which are frequently used either in WHERE clause or to join tables, avoid creating indexes on columns which are used only by functions or operators, avoid creating indexes on the columns which are required to changed quite frequently, etc.
5. Making available the access path - the optimizer will not use an access path that uses an index only because we have created that index. We need to explicitly make that access path available to the optimizer. We may use SQL hints to do that.
6. Using EXPLAIN PLAN and TKPROF - these tools can be used to fine tune SQL queries to a great extent. EXPLAIN PLAN explains the complete access path which will be used by the particular SQL statement during execution and the second tool TKPROF displays the actual performance statistics. Both these tools in combination can be really useful to see, change, and in turn fine-tune the SQL statements.
7. Optimizing the WHERE clause - there are many cases where index access path of a column of the WHERE clause is not used even if the index on that column has already been created. Avoid such cases to make best use of the indexes, which will ultimately improve the performance. Some of these cases are: COLUMN_NAME IS NOT NULL (ROWID for a null is not stored by an index), COLUMN_NAME NOT IN (value1, value2, value3, ...), COLUMN_NAME != expression, COLUMN_NAME LIKE'%pattern' (whereas COLUMN_NAME LIKE 'pattern%' uses the index access path), etc. Usage of expressions or functions on indexed columns will prevent the index access path to be used. So, use them wisely!
8. Using WHERE instead of HAVING - usage of WHERE clause may take advantage of the index defined on the column(s) used in the WHERE clause
9.   Using the leading index columns in WHERE clause - the WHERE clause may use the complex index access path in case we specify the leading index column(s) of a complex index otherwise the WHERE clause won't use the indexed access path.
10.   Indexed Scan vs Full Table Scan - Indexed scan is faster only if we are selcting only a few rows of a table otherwise full table scan should be preferred. It's estimated that an indexed scan is slower than a full table scan if the SQL statement is selecting more than 15% of the rows of the table. So, in all such cases use the SQL hints to force full table scan and suppress the use of pre-defined indexes. Okay... any guesses why full table scan is faster when a large percentage of rows are accessed? Because an indexed scan causes multiple reads per row accessed whereas a full table scan can read all rows contained in a block in a single logical read operation.
11. Using ORDER BY for an indexed scan - the optimizer uses the indexed scan if the column specified in the ORDER BY clause has an index defined on it. It'll use indexed scan even if the WHERE doesn't contain that column (or even if the WHERE clause itself is missing). So, analyze if you really want an indexed scan or a full table scan and if the latter is preferred in a particular scenario then use 'FULL' SQL hint to force the full table scan.
12.  Minimizing table passes - it normally results in a better performance for obvious reasons
13.  Joining tables in the proper order - the order in which tables are joined normally affects the number of rows processed by that JOIN operation and hence proper ordering of tables in a JOIN operation may result in the processing of fewer rows, which will in turn improve the performance. The key to decide the proper order is to have the most restrictive filtering condition in the early phases of a multiple table JOIN. For example, in case we are using a master table and a details table then it's better to connect to the master table first to connecting to the details table first may result in more number of rows getting joined.
14. Simple is usually faster - yeah... instead of writing a very complex SQL statement, if we break it into multiple simple SQL statements then the chances are quite high that the performance will improve. Make use of the EXPLAIN PLAN and TKPROF tools to analyze both the conditions and stick to the complex SQL only if you're very sure about its performance.
15.  Using ROWID and ROWNUM wherever possible - these special columns can be used to improve the performance of many SQL queries. The ROWID search is the fastest for Oracle database and this luxury must be enjoyed wherever possible. ROWNUM comes really handy in the cases where we want to limit the number of rows returned.
16. Usage of explicit cursors is better - explicit cursors perform better as the implicit cursors result in an extra fetch operation. Implicit cursosrs are opened the Oracle Server for INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and SELECT statements whereas the explicit cursors are opened by the writers of the query by explicitly using DECLARE, OPEN, FETCH, and CLOSE statements.
17.  Reducing network traffic - Arrays and PL/SQL blocks can be used effectively to reduce the network traffic especially in the scenarios where a huge amount of data requires processing. For example, a single INSERT statement can insert thousands of rows if arrays are used. This will obviously result into fewer DB passes and it'll in turn improve performance by reducing the network traffic. Similarly, if we can club multiple SQL statements in a single PL/SQL block then the entire block can be sent to Oracle Server involving a single network communication only, which will eventually improve performance by reducing the network traffic.
18. Using Oracle parallel query option - Since Oracle 8, even the queries based on indexed range scans can use this parallel query option if the index is partitioned. This feature can result in an improved performance in certain scenarios.

Java File Tutorial : How to read file line by line in Java - BufferedReader Scanner Example Tutorial

Line by Line reading in Java using BufferedReader and Scanner

There are multiple ways to read file line by line in Java. Most simple example of reading file line by line is using BufferedReader which provides method readLine() for reading file. Apart from generics, enum and varargs Java 1.5  has also introduced several new class in Java API one of the  utility class is Scanner, which can also be used to read any file line by line in Java. Though BufferedReader is available in Java from JDK 1.1,  java.util.Scanner provides more utility methods compared to BufferedReader. Scanner has method like hasNextLine() and nextLine() to facilitate line by line reading of file's contents. nextLine() returns String similar to  readLine() but scanner has more utility methods like nextInt(), nextLong() which can be used to directly read numbers from file instead of converting String to Integer or other Number classes. By the way Scanner is rather new approach for reading file and BufferedReader is the standard one. This is my 6th tutorial on Java IO,  In last couple of post we have seen creating file and directory in Java, parsing XML files using DOM and how to read properties file in Java. In this post we will focus on reading file line by line in Java using both BufferedReader and Scanner.

Reading file line by line in Java - BufferedReader Example

Java file read line by line example BufferedReader ScannerIn this example we are using BufferedReader for reading file content line by line. BufferedReader needs an InputStream which is a FileInputStream in this case and readLine() returns value of line or null if end of Stream has reached. line is terminated with line terminator e.g. \n or \r

import java.io.BufferedReader;

import java.io.FileInputStream;

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;

import java.io.IOException;

import java.io.InputStreamReader;

import java.util.logging.Level;

import java.util.logging.Logger;

/**

 * BufferedReader and Scanner can be used to read line by line from any File or

 * console in Java.

 * This Java program demonstrate line by line reading using BufferedReader in Java

 */

public class BufferedReaderExample { 

    public static void main(String args[]) {

    

        //reading file line by line in Java using BufferedReader     

        FileInputStream fis = null;

        BufferedReader reader = null;

    

        try {

            fis = new FileInputStream("C:/sample.txt");

            reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fis));

        

            System.out.println("Reading File line by line using BufferedReader");

        

            String line = reader.readLine();

            while(line != null){

                System.out.println(line);

                line = reader.readLine();

            }         

        

        } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {

            Logger.getLogger(BufferedReaderExample.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);

        } catch (IOException ex) {

            Logger.getLogger(BufferedReaderExample.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);

        

        } finally {

            try {

                reader.close();

                fis.close();

            } catch (IOException ex) {

                Logger.getLogger(BufferedReaderExample.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);

            }

        }

  }

Output:
Reading File line by line using BufferedReader
first line in file
second line
third line
fourth line
fifth line
last line in file


while using FileInputStream or any IO Reader don't forget to close the stream in finally block so that file descriptor associated with this operation get released. If not closed properly Java program may leak file descriptors which is a limited resource and in worst case program will not be able to open any new file. If you are Java 7 then you can use Automatic resource management or ARM blocks to let those resource automatically get closed by Java.

Reading file line by line in Java - Scanner Example

Scanner is new addition in Java 1.5 along-with several other changes like auto-boxing and has been a preferred choice for reading inputs from console. Since Scanner is able to read from InputStream , it can also be used to read from text File and it provide many utility methods to read line by line contents using nextLine() or nextInt() etc.

import java.io.FileInputStream;

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;

import java.util.Scanner;

/**

 * @author Javin Paul

 * Java program to read file line by line using Scanner. Scanner is a rather new

 * utility class in Java and introduced in JDK 1.5 and preferred way to read input

 * from console.

 */

public class ScannerExample {

    public static void main(String args[]) throws FileNotFoundException  {

    

       //Scanner Example - read file line by line in Java using Scanner

        FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("C:/sample.txt");

        Scanner scanner = new Scanner(fis);

    

        //reading file line by line using Scanner in Java

        System.out.println("Reading file line by line in Java using Scanner");

    

        while(scanner.hasNextLine()){

            System.out.println(scanner.nextLine());

        }

    

        scanner.close();

    } 

    

}

Output:
Reading file line by line in Java using Scanner
first line in file
second line
third line
fourth line
fifth line
last line in file