AtomicReference Java Guide

The AtomicReference class in Java is used to manage object references, providing a thread-safe way to update object reference and ensuring atomic operations on references in a multi-threaded environment.

Using AtomicReference can prevent race conditions and thread safety issues in a multi-threaded environment. It provides methods to manipulate the value of the reference, such as get() to retrieve the current value of the reference, set() to set a new value for the reference, and compareAndSet() to compare and set a new value for the reference.

The following is a simple example demonstrating the usage of AtomicReference:

import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;

public class AtomicReferenceExample {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        AtomicReference<String> atomicReference = new AtomicReference<>("initial value");

        // 获取当前值
        String currentValue = atomicReference.get();
        System.out.println("Current value: " + currentValue);

        // 设置新值
        atomicReference.set("new value");
        System.out.println("New value: " + atomicReference.get());

        // 比较并设置新值
        boolean updated = atomicReference.compareAndSet("new value", "updated value");
        System.out.println("Updated: " + updated);
        System.out.println("Current value: " + atomicReference.get());
    }
}

In the example above, we created an AtomicReference object and performed operations on it including getting the current value, setting a new value, and comparing and setting a new value. By using AtomicReference, we can ensure that operations on object references are thread-safe in a multi-threaded environment.