In Java: Is List.iterator()
thread-safe, i.e. does the returned iterator reflect the current state of the list at any time or just the state of the list at the time of its creation?
In Java: Is List.iterator()
thread-safe, i.e. does the returned iterator reflect the current state of the list at any time or just the state of the list at the time of its creation?
The behaviour of List.iterator() is not defined or consistent with different List implementations.
For ArrayList, LinkedList, you can get a ConcurrentModificationException if the list is modified when you are iterating over it. (This is not guaranteed) The way to avoid this issue is to use a synchronizedList() and lock the list while iterating over it.
For Vector, the collection is synchronized, but the iterator is not thread safe.
For CopyOnWriteArrayList, you get a snapshot of the elements in the list at the time you call iterator(), This iterator is thread safe, and you don't need to use any locking. Note: the contents of the elements can change.