Synchronization vs Lock

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If you’re simply locking an object, I’d prefer to use synchronized

Example:

Lock.acquire();
doSomethingNifty(); // Throws a NPE!
Lock.release(); // Oh noes, we never release the lock!

You have to explicitly do try{} finally{} everywhere.

Whereas with synchronized, it’s super clear and impossible to get wrong:

synchronized(myObject) {
    doSomethingNifty();
}

That said, Locks may be more useful for more complicated things where you can’t acquire and release in such a clean manner. I would honestly prefer to avoid using bare Locks in the first place, and just go with a more sophisticated concurrency control such as a CyclicBarrier or a LinkedBlockingQueue, if they meet your needs.

I’ve never had a reason to use wait() or notify() but there may be some good ones.

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