Interface BlockingQueue<E>
-
- Type Parameters:
-
E
- the type of elements held in this collection
- All Superinterfaces:
- Collection<E>, Iterable<E>, Queue<E>
- All Known Subinterfaces:
- BlockingDeque<E>, TransferQueue<E>
- All Known Implementing Classes:
- ArrayBlockingQueue, DelayQueue, LinkedBlockingDeque, LinkedBlockingQueue, LinkedTransferQueue, PriorityBlockingQueue, SynchronousQueue
public interface BlockingQueue<E> extends Queue<E>
AQueue
that additionally supports operations that wait for the queue to become non-empty when retrieving an element, and wait for space to become available in the queue when storing an element.BlockingQueue
methods come in four forms, with different ways of handling operations that cannot be satisfied immediately, but may be satisfied at some point in the future: one throws an exception, the second returns a special value (eithernull
orfalse
, depending on the operation), the third blocks the current thread indefinitely until the operation can succeed, and the fourth blocks for only a given maximum time limit before giving up. These methods are summarized in the following table:Summary of BlockingQueue methods Throws exception Special value Blocks Times out Insert add(e)
offer(e)
put(e)
offer(e, time, unit)
Remove remove()
poll()
take()
poll(time, unit)
Examine element()
peek()
not applicable not applicable A
BlockingQueue
does not acceptnull
elements. Implementations throwNullPointerException
on attempts toadd
,put
oroffer
anull
. Anull
is used as a sentinel value to indicate failure ofpoll
operations.A
BlockingQueue
may be capacity bounded. At any given time it may have aremainingCapacity
beyond which no additional elements can beput
without blocking. ABlockingQueue
without any intrinsic capacity constraints always reports a remaining capacity ofInteger.MAX_VALUE
.BlockingQueue
implementations are designed to be used primarily for producer-consumer queues, but additionally support theCollection
interface. So, for example, it is possible to remove an arbitrary element from a queue usingremove(x)
. However, such operations are in general not performed very efficiently, and are intended for only occasional use, such as when a queued message is cancelled.BlockingQueue
implementations are thread-safe. All queuing methods achieve their effects atomically using internal locks or other forms of concurrency control. However, the bulk Collection operationsaddAll
,containsAll
,retainAll
andremoveAll
are not necessarily performed atomically unless specified otherwise in an implementation. So it is possible, for example, foraddAll(c)
to fail (throwing an exception) after adding only some of the elements inc
.A
BlockingQueue
does not intrinsically support any kind of "close" or "shutdown" operation to indicate that no more items will be added. The needs and usage of such features tend to be implementation-dependent. For example, a common tactic is for producers to insert special end-of-stream or poison objects, that are interpreted accordingly when taken by consumers.Usage example, based on a typical producer-consumer scenario. Note that a
BlockingQueue
can safely be used with multiple producers and multiple consumers.class Producer implements Runnable { private final BlockingQueue queue; Producer(BlockingQueue q) { queue = q; } public void run() { try { while (true) { queue.put(produce()); } } catch (InterruptedException ex) { ... handle ...} } Object produce() { ... } } class Consumer implements Runnable { private final BlockingQueue queue; Consumer(BlockingQueue q) { queue = q; } public void run() { try { while (true) { consume(queue.take()); } } catch (InterruptedException ex) { ... handle ...} } void consume(Object x) { ... } } class Setup { void main() { BlockingQueue q = new SomeQueueImplementation(); Producer p = new Producer(q); Consumer c1 = new Consumer(q); Consumer c2 = new Consumer(q); new Thread(p).start(); new Thread(c1).start(); new Thread(c2).start(); } }
Memory consistency effects: As with other concurrent collections, actions in a thread prior to placing an object into a
BlockingQueue
happen-before actions subsequent to the access or removal of that element from theBlockingQueue
in another thread.This interface is a member of the Java Collections Framework.
- Since:
- 1.5
-
-
Method Summary
All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods Modifier and Type Method and Description boolean
add(E e)
Inserts the specified element into this queue if it is possible to do so immediately without violating capacity restrictions, returningtrue
upon success and throwing anIllegalStateException
if no space is currently available.boolean
contains(Object o)
Returnstrue
if this queue contains the specified element.int
drainTo(Collection<? super E> c)
Removes all available elements from this queue and adds them to the given collection.int
drainTo(Collection<? super E> c, int maxElements)
Removes at most the given number of available elements from this queue and adds them to the given collection.boolean
offer(E e)
Inserts the specified element into this queue if it is possible to do so immediately without violating capacity restrictions, returningtrue
upon success andfalse
if no space is currently available.boolean
offer(E e, long timeout, TimeUnit unit)
Inserts the specified element into this queue, waiting up to the specified wait time if necessary for space to become available.E
poll(long timeout, TimeUnit unit)
Retrieves and removes the head of this queue, waiting up to the specified wait time if necessary for an element to become available.void
put(E e)
Inserts the specified element into this queue, waiting if necessary for space to become available.int
remainingCapacity()
Returns the number of additional elements that this queue can ideally (in the absence of memory or resource constraints) accept without blocking, orInteger.MAX_VALUE
if there is no intrinsic limit.boolean
remove(Object o)
Removes a single instance of the specified element from this queue, if it is present.E
take()
Retrieves and removes the head of this queue, waiting if necessary until an element becomes available.-
Methods inherited from interface java.util.Collection
addAll, clear, containsAll, equals, hashCode, isEmpty, iterator, parallelStream, removeAll, removeIf, retainAll, size, spliterator, stream, toArray, toArray
-
-
-
-
Method Detail
add
boolean add(E e)
Inserts the specified element into this queue if it is possible to do so immediately without violating capacity restrictions, returningtrue
upon success and throwing anIllegalStateException
if no space is currently available. When using a capacity-restricted queue, it is generally preferable to useoffer
.- Specified by:
-
add
in interfaceCollection<E>
- Specified by:
-
add
in interfaceQueue<E>
- Parameters:
-
e
- the element to add - Returns:
-
true
(as specified byCollection.add(E)
) - Throws:
-
IllegalStateException
- if the element cannot be added at this time due to capacity restrictions -
ClassCastException
- if the class of the specified element prevents it from being added to this queue -
NullPointerException
- if the specified element is null -
IllegalArgumentException
- if some property of the specified element prevents it from being added to this queue
offer
boolean offer(E e)
Inserts the specified element into this queue if it is possible to do so immediately without violating capacity restrictions, returningtrue
upon success andfalse
if no space is currently available. When using a capacity-restricted queue, this method is generally preferable toadd(E)
, which can fail to insert an element only by throwing an exception.- Specified by:
-
offer
in interfaceQueue<E>
- Parameters:
-
e
- the element to add - Returns:
-
true
if the element was added to this queue, elsefalse
- Throws:
-
ClassCastException
- if the class of the specified element prevents it from being added to this queue -
NullPointerException
- if the specified element is null -
IllegalArgumentException
- if some property of the specified element prevents it from being added to this queue
put
void put(E e) throws InterruptedException
Inserts the specified element into this queue, waiting if necessary for space to become available.- Parameters:
-
e
- the element to add - Throws:
-
InterruptedException
- if interrupted while waiting -
ClassCastException
- if the class of the specified element prevents it from being added to this queue -
NullPointerException
- if the specified element is null -
IllegalArgumentException
- if some property of the specified element prevents it from being added to this queue
offer
boolean offer(E e, long timeout, TimeUnit unit) throws InterruptedException
Inserts the specified element into this queue, waiting up to the specified wait time if necessary for space to become available.- Parameters:
-
e
- the element to add -
timeout
- how long to wait before giving up, in units ofunit
-
unit
- aTimeUnit
determining how to interpret thetimeout
parameter - Returns:
-
true
if successful, orfalse
if the specified waiting time elapses before space is available - Throws:
-
InterruptedException
- if interrupted while waiting -
ClassCastException
- if the class of the specified element prevents it from being added to this queue -
NullPointerException
- if the specified element is null -
IllegalArgumentException
- if some property of the specified element prevents it from being added to this queue
take
E take() throws InterruptedException
Retrieves and removes the head of this queue, waiting if necessary until an element becomes available.- Returns:
- the head of this queue
- Throws:
-
InterruptedException
- if interrupted while waiting
poll
E poll(long timeout, TimeUnit unit) throws InterruptedException
Retrieves and removes the head of this queue, waiting up to the specified wait time if necessary for an element to become available.- Parameters:
-
timeout
- how long to wait before giving up, in units ofunit
-
unit
- aTimeUnit
determining how to interpret thetimeout
parameter - Returns:
-
the head of this queue, or
null
if the specified waiting time elapses before an element is available - Throws:
-
InterruptedException
- if interrupted while waiting
remainingCapacity
int remainingCapacity()
Returns the number of additional elements that this queue can ideally (in the absence of memory or resource constraints) accept without blocking, orInteger.MAX_VALUE
if there is no intrinsic limit.Note that you cannot always tell if an attempt to insert an element will succeed by inspecting
remainingCapacity
because it may be the case that another thread is about to insert or remove an element.- Returns:
- the remaining capacity
remove
boolean remove(Object o)
Removes a single instance of the specified element from this queue, if it is present. More formally, removes an elemente
such thato.equals(e)
, if this queue contains one or more such elements. Returnstrue
if this queue contained the specified element (or equivalently, if this queue changed as a result of the call).- Specified by:
-
remove
in interfaceCollection<E>
- Parameters:
-
o
- element to be removed from this queue, if present - Returns:
-
true
if this queue changed as a result of the call - Throws:
-
ClassCastException
- if the class of the specified element is incompatible with this queue (optional) -
NullPointerException
- if the specified element is null (optional)
contains
boolean contains(Object o)
Returnstrue
if this queue contains the specified element. More formally, returnstrue
if and only if this queue contains at least one elemente
such thato.equals(e)
.- Specified by:
-
contains
in interfaceCollection<E>
- Parameters:
-
o
- object to be checked for containment in this queue - Returns:
-
true
if this queue contains the specified element - Throws:
-
ClassCastException
- if the class of the specified element is incompatible with this queue (optional) -
NullPointerException
- if the specified element is null (optional)
drainTo
int drainTo(Collection<? super E> c)
Removes all available elements from this queue and adds them to the given collection. This operation may be more efficient than repeatedly polling this queue. A failure encountered while attempting to add elements to collectionc
may result in elements being in neither, either or both collections when the associated exception is thrown. Attempts to drain a queue to itself result inIllegalArgumentException
. Further, the behavior of this operation is undefined if the specified collection is modified while the operation is in progress.- Parameters:
-
c
- the collection to transfer elements into - Returns:
- the number of elements transferred
- Throws:
-
UnsupportedOperationException
- if addition of elements is not supported by the specified collection -
ClassCastException
- if the class of an element of this queue prevents it from being added to the specified collection -
NullPointerException
- if the specified collection is null -
IllegalArgumentException
- if the specified collection is this queue, or some property of an element of this queue prevents it from being added to the specified collection
drainTo
int drainTo(Collection<? super E> c, int maxElements)
Removes at most the given number of available elements from this queue and adds them to the given collection. A failure encountered while attempting to add elements to collectionc
may result in elements being in neither, either or both collections when the associated exception is thrown. Attempts to drain a queue to itself result inIllegalArgumentException
. Further, the behavior of this operation is undefined if the specified collection is modified while the operation is in progress.- Parameters:
-
c
- the collection to transfer elements into -
maxElements
- the maximum number of elements to transfer - Returns:
- the number of elements transferred
- Throws:
-
UnsupportedOperationException
- if addition of elements is not supported by the specified collection -
ClassCastException
- if the class of an element of this queue prevents it from being added to the specified collection -
NullPointerException
- if the specified collection is null -
IllegalArgumentException
- if the specified collection is this queue, or some property of an element of this queue prevents it from being added to the specified collection
-
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