AtomicInteger

The AtomicInteger class provides you with a int variable which can be read and written atomically, and which also contains advanced atomic operations like compareAndSet(). The AtomicInteger class is located in the java.util.concurrent.atomic package, so the full class name is java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger . This text describes the version of AtomicInteger found in Java 8, but the first version was added in Java 5.

The reasoning behind the AtomicInteger design is explained in my Java Concurrency tutorial in the text about Compare and Swap.

Creating an AtomicInteger

Creating an AtomicInteger is done like this:

AtomicInteger atomicInteger = new AtomicInteger();

This example creates an AtomicInteger with the initial value 0 .

If you want to create an AtomicInteger with an initial value, you can do so like this:

AtomicInteger atomicInteger = new AtomicInteger(123);

This example passes a value of 123 as parameter to the AtomicInteger contructor, which sets the initial value of the AtomicInteger instance to 123 .

Getting the AtomicInteger Value

You can get the value of an AtomicInteger instance via the get() method. Here is an AtomicInteger.get() example:

AtomicInteger atomicInteger = new AtomicInteger(123);

int theValue = atomicInteger.get();

Setting the AtomicInteger Value

You can set the value of an AtomicInteger instance via the set() method. Here is an AtomicInteger.set() example:

AtomicInteger atomicInteger = new AtomicInteger(123);

atomicInteger.set(234);

This example creates an AtomicInteger example with an initial value of 123, and then sets its value to 234 in the next line.

Compare and Set the AtomicInteger Value

The AtomicInteger class also has an atomic compareAndSet() method. This method compares the current value of the AtomicInteger instance to an expected value, and if the two values are equal, sets a new value for the AtomicInteger instance. Here is an AtomicInteger.compareAndSet() example:

AtomicInteger atomicInteger = new AtomicInteger(123);

int expectedValue = 123;
int newValue      = 234;
atomicInteger.compareAndSet(expectedValue, newValue);

This example first creates an AtomicInteger instance with an initial value of 123 . Then it compares the value of the AtomicInteger to the expected value 123 and if they are equal the new value of the AtomicInteger becomes 234;

Adding to the AtomicInteger Value

The AtomicInteger class contains a few methods you can use to add a value to the AtomicInteger and get its value returned. These methods are:

  • addAndGet()
  • getAndAdd()
  • getAndIncrement()
  • incrementAndGet()

The first method, addAndGet() adds a number to the AtomicInteger and returns its value after the addition. The second method, getAndAdd() also adds a number to the AtomicInteger but returns the value the AtomicInteger had before the value was added. Which of these two methods you should use depends on your use case. Here are two examples:

AtomicInteger atomicInteger = new AtomicInteger();


System.out.println(atomicInteger.getAndAdd(10));
System.out.println(atomicInteger.addAndGet(10));

This example will print out the values 0 and 20. First the example gets the value of the AtomicInteger before adding 10 to. Its value before addition is 0. Then the example adds 10 to the AtomicInteger and gets the value after the addition. The value is now 20.

You can also add negative numbers to the AtomicInteger via these two methods. The result is effectively a subtraction.

The methods getAndIncrement() and incrementAndGet() works like getAndAdd() and addAndGet() but just add 1 to the value of the AtomicInteger.

Subtracting From the AtomicInteger Value

The AtomicInteger class also contains a few methods for subtracting values from the AtomicInteger value atomically. These methods are:

  • decrementAndGet()
  • getAndDecrement()

The decrementAndGet() subtracts 1 from the AtomicInteger value and returns its value after the subtraction. The getAndDecrement() also subtracts 1 from the AtomicInteger value but returns the value the AtomicInteger had before the subtraction.

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