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Producer-Consumer solution using threads in

Java
In computing, the producerconsumer problem (also known as the bounded- 3.5
buffer problem) is a classic example of a multi-process synchronization prob-
lem. The problem describes two processes, the producer and the consumer, which
share a common, fixed-size buffer used as a queue.

The producers job is to generate data, put it into the buffer, and start again.
At the same time, the consumer is consuming the data (i.e. removing it from the
buffer), one piece at a time.

Problem
To make sure that the producer wont try to add data into the buffer if its full and that
the consumer wont try to remove data from an empty buffer.

Solution
The producer is to either go to sleep or discard data if the buffer is full. The next time
the consumer removes an item from the buffer, it notifies the producer, who starts to
fill the buffer again. In the same way, the consumer can go to sleep if it finds the buffer
to be empty. The next time the producer puts data into the buffer, it wakes upthe
sleeping consumer.
An inadequate solution could result in a deadlock where both processes are waiting

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to be awakened.

Recommended Reading- Multithreading in JAVA, Synchronized in JAVA , Inter-

thread Communication

Implementation of Producer Consumer Class

A LinkedList list to store list of jobs in queue.

A Variable Capacity to check for if the list is full or not
A mechanism to control the insertion and extraction from this list so that we do
not insert into list if it is full or remove from it if it is empty.

Note: It is recommended to test the below program on a offline IDE as infinite loops
and sleep method may lead to it time out on any online IDE

// Java program to implement solution of producer

// consumer problem.
import java.util.LinkedList;

public class Threadexample

{
public static void main(String[] args)
throws InterruptedException
{
// Object of a class that has both produce()
// and consume() methods
final PC pc = new PC();

// Create producer thread

Thread t1 = new Thread(new Runnable()
{
@Override
public void run()
{
try
{
pc.produce();
}
catch(InterruptedException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});

// Create consumer thread

Thread t2 = new Thread(new Runnable()
{
@Override
public void run()
{
try
{
pc.consume();
}
catch(InterruptedException e)

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{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});

// Start both threads

t1.start();
t2.start();

// t1 finishes before t2
t1.join();
t2.join();
}

// This class has a list, producer (adds items to list

// and consumber (removes items).
public static class PC
{
// Create a list shared by producer and consumer
// Size of list is 2.
LinkedList<Integer> list = new LinkedList<>();
int capacity = 2;

// Function called by producer thread

public void produce() throws InterruptedException
{
int value = 0;
while (true)
{
synchronized (this)
{
// producer thread waits while list
// is full
while (list.size()==capacity)
wait();

System.out.println("Producer produced-"
+ value);

// to insert the jobs in the list

list.add(value++);

// notifies the consumer thread that

// now it can start consuming
notify();

// makes the working of program easier

// to understand
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
}
}

// Function called by consumer thread

public void consume() throws InterruptedException
{
while (true)
{
synchronized (this)
{
// consumer thread waits while list
// is empty
while (list.size()==0)
wait();

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//to retrive the ifrst job in the list

int val = list.removeFirst();

System.out.println("Consumer consumed-"
+ val);

// Wake up producer thread

notify();

// and sleep
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
}
}
}
}

Run on IDE

Output:

Producer produced-0
Producer produced-1
Consumer consumed-0
Consumer consumed-1
Producer produced-2

Important Points

In PC class (A class that has both produce and consume methods), a linked list
of jobs and a capacity of the list is added to check that producer does not pro-
duce if the list is full.
In Producer class, the value is initialized as 0.
Also, we have an infinite outer loop to insert values in the list. Inside this
loop, we have a synchronized block so that only a producer or a consumer
thread runs at a time.
An inner loop is there before adding the jobs to list that checks if the job list
is full, the producer thread gives up the intrinsic lock on PC and goes on
the waiting state.
If the list is empty, the control passes to below the loop and it adds a value
in the list.
In the Consumer class, we again have an infinite loop to extract a value from
the list.
Inside, we also have an inner loop which checks if the list is empty.
If it is empty then we make the consumer thread give up the lock onPC
and passes the control to producer thread for producing more jobs.
If the list is not empty, we go round the loop and removes an item from the

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list.
In both the methods, we use notify at the end of all statements. The reason is
simple, once you have something in list, you can have the consumer thread con-
sume it, or if you have consumed something, you can have the producer pro-
duce something.
sleep() at the end of both methods just make the output of program run in step
wise manner and not display everything all at once so that you can see what ac-
tually is happening in the program.

Exercise :

Readers are advised to use if condition in place of inner loop for checking
boundary conditions.
Try to make your program produce one item and immediately after that the con-
sumer consumes it before any other item is produced by the consumer.

Reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Producer%E2%80%93consumer_problem

This article is contributed by Rishabh Mahrsee. If you like GeeksforGeeks and would
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Amogha R 15 days ago

Another easy example:
package Threads;

class Controller {
String dataItem = "A";
volatile int count = 50;

synchronized public void consume() {

while (count > 0) {

count--;
try {

wait();
// Consume dataItem
System.out.println("Consumed:" + dataItem);
Thread.sleep(2000);
notify();

} catch (InterruptedException e) {
see more

Reply Share

Alexey Smirnov 20 days ago

Corrections:
In Producer class, the value is initialized as 0...
In the Consumer class, we again have an infinite loop to extract a value from the
list...

not class, but methods

any other item is produced by the consumer.

by producer!
Reply Share

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