Waiting on a list of Future

Question

I have a method which returns a List of futures

List<Future<O>> futures = getFutures();

Now I want to wait until either all futures are done processing successfully or any of the tasks whose output is returned by a future throws an exception. Even if one task throws an exception, there is no point in waiting for the other futures.

Simple approach would be to

wait() {

   For(Future f : futures) {
     try {
       f.get();
     } catch(Exception e) {
       //TODO catch specific exception
       // this future threw exception , means somone could not do its task
       return;
     }
   }
}

But the problem here is if, for example, the 4th future throws an exception, then I will wait unnecessarily for the first 3 futures to be available.

How to solve this? Will count down latch help in any way? I'm unable to use Future isDone because the java doc says

boolean isDone()
Returns true if this task completed. Completion may be due to normal termination, an exception, or cancellation -- in all of these cases, this method will return true.

Answer 1

You can use an ExecutorCompletionService. The documentation even has an example for your exact use-case:

Suppose instead that you would like to use the first non-null result of the set of tasks, ignoring any that encounter exceptions, and cancelling all other tasks when the first one is ready:

void solve(Executor e, Collection<Callable<Result>> solvers) throws InterruptedException {
    CompletionService<Result> ecs = new ExecutorCompletionService<Result>(e);
    int n = solvers.size();
    List<Future<Result>> futures = new ArrayList<Future<Result>>(n);
    Result result = null;
    try {
        for (Callable<Result> s : solvers)
            futures.add(ecs.submit(s));
        for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
            try {
                Result r = ecs.take().get();
                if (r != null) {
                    result = r;
                    break;
                }
            } catch (ExecutionException ignore) {
            }
        }
    } finally {
        for (Future<Result> f : futures)
            f.cancel(true);
    }

    if (result != null)
        use(result);
}

The important thing to notice here is that ecs.take() will get the first completed task, not just the first submitted one. Thus you should get them in the order of finishing the execution (or throwing an exception).

Answer 2

Use CompletableFuturein Java 8

    // Kick of multiple, asynchronous lookups
    CompletableFuture<User> page1 = gitHubLookupService.findUser("Test1");
    CompletableFuture<User> page2 = gitHubLookupService.findUser("Test2");
    CompletableFuture<User> page3 = gitHubLookupService.findUser("Test3");

    // Wait until they are all done
    CompletableFuture.allOf(page1,page2,page3).join();

    logger.info("--> " + page1.get());

Answer 3

The CompletionService will take your Callables with the .submit() method and you can retrieve the computed futures with the .take() method.

One thing you must not forget is to terminate the ExecutorService by calling the .shutdown() method. Also you can only call this method when you have saved a reference to the executor service so make sure to keep one.

Example code - For a fixed number of work items to be worked on in parallel:

ExecutorService service = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors());

CompletionService<YourCallableImplementor> completionService = 
new ExecutorCompletionService<YourCallableImplementor>(service);

ArrayList<Future<YourCallableImplementor>> futures = new ArrayList<Future<YourCallableImplementor>>();

for (String computeMe : elementsToCompute) {
    futures.add(completionService.submit(new YourCallableImplementor(computeMe)));
}
//now retrieve the futures after computation (auto wait for it)
int received = 0;

while(received < elementsToCompute.size()) {
 Future<YourCallableImplementor> resultFuture = completionService.take(); 
 YourCallableImplementor result = resultFuture.get();
 received ++;
}
//important: shutdown your ExecutorService
service.shutdown();

Example code - For a dynamic number of work items to be worked on in parallel:

public void runIt(){
    ExecutorService service = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors());
    CompletionService<CallableImplementor> completionService = new ExecutorCompletionService<CallableImplementor>(service);
    ArrayList<Future<CallableImplementor>> futures = new ArrayList<Future<CallableImplementor>>();

    //Initial workload is 8 threads
    for (int i = 0; i < 9; i++) {
        futures.add(completionService.submit(write.new CallableImplementor()));             
    }
    boolean finished = false;
    while (!finished) {
        try {
            Future<CallableImplementor> resultFuture;
            resultFuture = completionService.take();
            CallableImplementor result = resultFuture.get();
            finished = doSomethingWith(result.getResult());
            result.setResult(null);
            result = null;
            resultFuture = null;
            //After work package has been finished create new work package and add it to futures
            futures.add(completionService.submit(write.new CallableImplementor()));
        } catch (InterruptedException | ExecutionException e) {
            //handle interrupted and assert correct thread / work packet count              
        } 
    }

    //important: shutdown your ExecutorService
    service.shutdown();
}

public class CallableImplementor implements Callable{
    boolean result;

    @Override
    public CallableImplementor call() throws Exception {
        //business logic goes here
        return this;
    }

    public boolean getResult() {
        return result;
    }

    public void setResult(boolean result) {
        this.result = result;
    }
}

Answer 4

maybe this would help (nothing would replaced with raw thread, yeah!) I suggest run each Future guy with a separated thread (they goes parallel), then when ever one of the got error, it just signal the manager(Handler class).

class Handler{
//...
private Thread thisThread;
private boolean failed=false;
private Thread[] trds;
public void waitFor(){
  thisThread=Thread.currentThread();
  List<Future<Object>> futures = getFutures();
  trds=new Thread[futures.size()];
  for (int i = 0; i < trds.length; i++) {
    RunTask rt=new RunTask(futures.get(i), this);
    trds[i]=new Thread(rt);
  }
  synchronized (this) {
    for(Thread tx:trds){
      tx.start();
    }  
  }
  for(Thread tx:trds){
    try {tx.join();
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
      System.out.println("Job failed!");break;
    }
  }if(!failed){System.out.println("Job Done");}
}

private List<Future<Object>> getFutures() {
  return null;
}

public synchronized void cancelOther(){if(failed){return;}
  failed=true;
  for(Thread tx:trds){
    tx.stop();//Deprecated but works here like a boss
  }thisThread.interrupt();
}
//...
}
class RunTask implements Runnable{
private Future f;private Handler h;
public RunTask(Future f,Handler h){this.f=f;this.h=h;}
public void run(){
try{
f.get();//beware about state of working, the stop() method throws ThreadDeath Error at any thread state (unless it blocked by some operation)
}catch(Exception e){System.out.println("Error, stopping other guys...");h.cancelOther();}
catch(Throwable t){System.out.println("Oops, some other guy has stopped working...");}
}
}

I have to say the above code would error(didn't check), but I hope I could explain the solution. please have a try.

Answer 5

If you are using Java 8 and don't want to manipulate CompletableFutures, I have written a tool to retrieve results for a List<Future<T>> using streaming. The key is that you are forbidden to map(Future::get) as it throws.

public final class Futures
{

    private Futures()
    {}

    public static <E> Collector<Future<E>, Collection<E>, List<E>> present()
    {
        return new FutureCollector<>();
    }

    private static class FutureCollector<T> implements Collector<Future<T>, Collection<T>, List<T>>
    {
        private final List<Throwable> exceptions = new LinkedList<>();

        @Override
        public Supplier<Collection<T>> supplier()
        {
            return LinkedList::new;
        }

        @Override
        public BiConsumer<Collection<T>, Future<T>> accumulator()
        {
            return (r, f) -> {
                try
                {
                    r.add(f.get());
                }
                catch (InterruptedException e)
                {}
                catch (ExecutionException e)
                {
                    exceptions.add(e.getCause());
                }
            };
        }

        @Override
        public BinaryOperator<Collection<T>> combiner()
        {
            return (l1, l2) -> {
                l1.addAll(l2);
                return l1;
            };
        }

        @Override
        public Function<Collection<T>, List<T>> finisher()
        {
            return l -> {

                List<T> ret = new ArrayList<>(l);
                if (!exceptions.isEmpty())
                    throw new AggregateException(exceptions, ret);

                return ret;
            };

        }

        @Override
        public Set<java.util.stream.Collector.Characteristics> characteristics()
        {
            return java.util.Collections.emptySet();
        }
    }

This needs an AggregateException that works like C#'s

public class AggregateException extends RuntimeException
{
    /**
     *
     */
    private static final long serialVersionUID = -4477649337710077094L;

    private final List<Throwable> causes;
    private List<?> successfulElements;

    public AggregateException(List<Throwable> causes, List<?> l)
    {
        this.causes = causes;
        successfulElements = l;
    }

    public AggregateException(List<Throwable> causes)
    {
        this.causes = causes;
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized Throwable getCause()
    {
        return this;
    }

    public List<Throwable> getCauses()
    {
        return causes;
    }

    public List<?> getSuccessfulElements()
    {
        return successfulElements;
    }

    public void setSuccessfulElements(List<?> successfulElements)
    {
        this.successfulElements = successfulElements;
    }

}

This component acts exactly as C#'s Task.WaitAll. I am working on a variant that does the same as CompletableFuture.allOf (equivalento to Task.WhenAll)

The reason why I did this is that I am using Spring's ListenableFuture and don't want to port to CompletableFuture despite it is a more standard way

Answer 6

If you are using Java 8 then you can do this easier with CompletableFuture and CompletableFuture.allOf, which applies the callback only after all supplied CompletableFutures are done.

// Waits for *all* futures to complete and returns a list of results.
// If *any* future completes exceptionally then the resulting future will also complete exceptionally.

public static <T> CompletableFuture<List<T>> all(List<CompletableFuture<T>> futures) {
    CompletableFuture[] cfs = futures.toArray(new CompletableFuture[futures.size()]);

    return CompletableFuture.allOf(cfs)
            .thenApply(() -> futures.stream()
                                    .map(CompletableFuture::join)
                                    .collect(Collectors.toList())
            );
}