应用场景

  1. 需要增加参数,但是不想或者不能修改接口。
  2. 放置一些线程不安全,但是反复构建会比较耗内存或者CPU的对象,同步访问又会导致锁竞争。比如SimpleDateFormat。

实现原理

本质上就是一个以threadId为key的Map。

实战例子——Spring Transaction Manager

事务管理可能会跨越好几个Service方法,如何在这些Service调用之间保存签名service的事务定义和数据库链接信息呢(需要这些信息决定事务的行为,比如determines if there is an existing transaction; ),特别是事务id?Spring就是通过ThreadLocal来实现的(@see TransactionSynchronizationManager`) 。具体参见这篇文章:写的非常详细:Spring @Transactional explained

InheritableThreadLocal

package java.lang;
import java.lang.ref.*;

/**
 * This class extends <tt>ThreadLocal</tt> to provide inheritance of values
 * from parent thread to child thread: when a child thread is created, the
 * child receives initial values for all inheritable thread-local variables
 * for which the parent has values.  Normally the child's values will be
 * identical to the parent's; however, the child's value can be made an
 * arbitrary function of the parent's by overriding the <tt>childValue</tt>
 * method in this class.
 * 
 * <p>Inheritable thread-local variables are used in preference to
 * ordinary thread-local variables when the per-thread-attribute being
 * maintained in the variable (e.g., User ID, Transaction ID) must be
 * automatically transmitted to any child threads that are created.
 *
 * @author  Josh Bloch and Doug Lea
 * @version %I%, %G%
 * @see     ThreadLocal
 * @since   1.2
 */

public class InheritableThreadLocal<T> extends ThreadLocal<T> {
    /**
     * Computes the child's initial value for this inheritable thread-local
     * variable as a function of the parent's value at the time the child
     * thread is created.  This method is called from within the parent
     * thread before the child is started.
     * <p>
     * This method merely returns its input argument, and should be overridden
     * if a different behavior is desired.
     *
     * @param parentValue the parent thread's value
     * @return the child thread's initial value
     */
    protected T childValue(T parentValue) {
        return parentValue;
    }

    /**
     * Get the map associated with a ThreadLocal. 
     *
     * @param t the current thread
     */
    ThreadLocalMap getMap(Thread t) {
       return t.inheritableThreadLocals;
    }

    /**
     * Create the map associated with a ThreadLocal. 
     *
     * @param t the current thread
     * @param firstValue value for the initial entry of the table.
     * @param map the map to store.
     */
    void createMap(Thread t, T firstValue) {
        t.inheritableThreadLocals = new ThreadLocalMap(this, firstValue);
    }
}

参考文档

  1. Understanding the concept behind ThreadLocal
  2. Java Thread Local – How to use and code sample
  3. Spring @Transactional explained
  4. 使用Java构造高可扩展应用——如何实现一个高效且多线程安全的队列