What is the volatile keyword useful for?

Question

At work today, I came across the volatile keyword in Java. Not being very familiar with it, I found this explanation.

Given the detail in which that arti

Answer 1

Below is a very simple code to demonstrate the requirement of volatile for variable which is used to control the Thread execution from other thread (this is one scenario where volatile is required).

// Code to prove importance of 'volatile' when state of one thread is being mutated from another thread.
// Try running this class with and without 'volatile' for 'state' property of Task class.
public class VolatileTest {
    public static void main(String[] a) throws Exception {
        Task task = new Task();
        new Thread(task).start();

        Thread.sleep(500);
        long stoppedOn = System.nanoTime();

        task.stop(); // -----> do this to stop the thread

        System.out.println("Stopping on: " + stoppedOn);
    }
}

class Task implements Runnable {
    // Try running with and without 'volatile' here
    private volatile boolean state = true;
    private int i = 0;

    public void stop() {
        state = false;
    } 

    @Override
    public void run() {
        while(state) {
            i++;
        }
        System.out.println(i + "> Stopped on: " + System.nanoTime());
    }
}

When volatile is not used: you'll never see 'Stopped on: xxx' message even after 'Stopping on: xxx', and the program continues to run.

Stopping on: 1895303906650500

When volatile used: you'll see the 'Stopped on: xxx' immediately.

Stopping on: 1895285647980000
324565439> Stopped on: 1895285648087300

Demo: https://repl.it/repls/SilverAgonizingObjectcode