Java thread producer and consumer program issue

Question

I am trying the Java thread producer and consumer program. but consumer thread always goes to waiting status .

I unable to debug the issues why consumer thread always goes to waiting status or producer not notify to consumer thread

please help me to fix this . The programs are below.

The communicator class calls the both producer and consumer class

public class Communicator {

   Thread t = null;
    Thread t1 = null;

    public void runThread() {
        Producer p = new Producer();
        Consumer c = new Consumer(p);
        t = new Thread(p);
        t1 = new Thread(c);
        t.start();
        t1.start();
        Thread tr = new Thread() {
            public void run() {
                for (int i = 0; i < 30; i++) {
                    System.out.println("t::::::::::::: " + t.getState());
                    System.out.println("t1::::::::::::: " + t1.getState());
                    try {
                        Thread.sleep(2000);
                    } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
                        ie.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }
        };
        tr.start();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Communicator c = new Communicator();
        c.runThread();
    }
}

This is producer class which append the data in stringbuffer and notify to consumer class

public class Producer extends Thread {
        public StringBuffer sb;

        public Producer() {
            sb = new StringBuffer();
        }

        public void run() {
            synchronized (sb) {
                try {
                    System.out.println("Bala");
                    sb.append("murugan");
                    sb.notify();
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }

    }

Below is consumer class code . it wait up to get notifications from producer class.

public class Consumer extends Thread {
    public Producer p;

    public Consumer(Producer p) {
        this.p = p;

    }

    public void run(){
        synchronized (p.sb) {
            try {

                p.sb.wait();

            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            System.out.println(p.sb);
        }
    }


}

Before going to wait() in Consumer class you are supposed to do your business logic to process the stuff in the string buffer. You should go wait() only if there is no data available to process. — Alex Suo
This question may be useful : stackoverflow.com/questions/37683895/…. It removes wait and notify with BlokcingQueues. Replace Interger with String — Ravindra babu
@user3509105 please refer my answer below. Hope it will be helpful.Method notify() only wakes up the ` eligible threads` who are currently not awake but are waiting to be notified so that they can aquire the lock. Hope it will be helpful. — nits.kk

developer developer · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-25T08:03:39

There are few problems with your current code in which the Consumer thread always be in waiting state whereas the producer is already terminated.

Also, your StringBuffer object needs to be volatile so that the producer thread writes will be flushed & available to the other thread.

Along with that, I have modified your Producer and Consumer code to make it more realistic (both run in while loop one producing some data and the other receiving the data) as shown below: (I have also added 1 sec sleep to run the things in slower pace so that you can understand the things better):

Consumer class:

public class Producer extends Thread {
        public volatile StringBuffer sb;

        public Producer() {
            sb = new StringBuffer();
            sb.append("");
        }

        public void run() {
            synchronized (sb) {
                try {
                    while(true) {
                        Thread.sleep(1000);
                        if(sb.toString().equals("")) {
                            sb.append("murugan");
                            System.out.println(" producing sb completed *** ");
                            sb.notify();
                        } else {
                            sb.wait();
                        }
                    } 
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
    }

Consumer class:

public class Consumer extends Thread {
        public Producer p;

        public Consumer(Producer p) {
            this.p = p;

        }

        public void run(){
            synchronized (p.sb) {
                try {
                    while(true) {
                        Thread.sleep(1000);
                        if(p.sb.toString().equals("")) {
                          p.sb.wait();
                        } else {
                            String str = p.sb.toString();
                            System.out.println(" consuming sb completed **** "+str);
                            p.sb.replace(0, str.length(), "");
                            p.sb.notify();
                        }
                    }
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
                System.out.println(p.sb);
            }
        }
    }

Java thread producer and consumer program issue

5 Answers