Wait until any of Future is done

Question

I have few asynchronous tasks running and I need to wait until at least one of them is finished (in the future probably I\'ll need to wait util M out of N tasks are finished). C

Answer 1

This is actually pretty easy with wait() and notifyAll().

First, define a lock object. (You can use any class for this, but I like to be explicit):

package com.javadude.sample;

public class Lock {}

Next, define your worker thread. He must notify that lock object when he's finished with his processing. Note that the notify must be in a synchronized block locking on the lock object.

package com.javadude.sample;

public class Worker extends Thread {
    private Lock lock_;
    private long timeToSleep_;
    private String name_;
    public Worker(Lock lock, String name, long timeToSleep) {
        lock_ = lock;
        timeToSleep_ = timeToSleep;
        name_ = name;
    }
    @Override
    public void run() {
        // do real work -- using a sleep here to simulate work
        try {
            sleep(timeToSleep_);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            interrupt();
        }
        System.out.println(name_ + " is done... notifying");
        // notify whoever is waiting, in this case, the client
        synchronized (lock_) {
            lock_.notify();
        }
    }
}

Finally, you can write your client:

package com.javadude.sample;

public class Client {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Lock lock = new Lock();
        Worker worker1 = new Worker(lock, "worker1", 15000);
        Worker worker2 = new Worker(lock, "worker2", 10000);
        Worker worker3 = new Worker(lock, "worker3", 5000);
        Worker worker4 = new Worker(lock, "worker4", 20000);

        boolean started = false;
        int numNotifies = 0;
        while (true) {
            synchronized (lock) {
                try {
                    if (!started) {
                        // need to do the start here so we grab the lock, just
                        //   in case one of the threads is fast -- if we had done the
                        //   starts outside the synchronized block, a fast thread could
                        //   get to its notification *before* the client is waiting for it
                        worker1.start();
                        worker2.start();
                        worker3.start();
                        worker4.start();
                        started = true;
                    }
                    lock.wait();
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    break;
                }
                numNotifies++;
                if (numNotifies == 4) {
                    break;
                }
                System.out.println("Notified!");
            }
        }
        System.out.println("Everyone has notified me... I'm done");
    }
}

Answer 2

Why not just create a results queue and wait on the queue? Or more simply, use a CompletionService since that's what it is: an ExecutorService + result queue.