Singleton with Arguments in Java
I was reading the Singleton article on Wikipedia and I came across this example:
public class Singleton {
// Private constructor prevents instantiation from other classes
private Singleton() {}
/**
* SingletonHolder is loaded on the first execution of Singleton.getInstance()
* or the first access to SingletonHolder.INSTANCE, not before.
*/
private static class SingletonHolder {
private static final Singleton INSTANCE = new Singleton();
}
public static Singleton getInstance() {
return SingletonHolder.INSTANCE;
}
}
While I really like the way this Singleton behaves, I can't see how to adapt it to incorporate arguments to the constructor. What is the preferred way to do this in Java? Would I have to do something like this?
public class Singleton
{
private static Singleton singleton = null;
private final int x;
private Singleton(int x) {
this.x = x;
}
public synchronized static Singleton getInstance(int x) {
if(singleton == null) singleton = new Singleton(x);
return singleton;
}
}
Thanks!
Edit: I think I have started a storm of controversy with my desire to use Singleton. Let me explain my motivation and hopefully someone can suggest a better idea. I am using a grid computing framework to execute tasks in parallel. In general, I have something like this:
// AbstractTask implements Serializable
public class Task extends AbstractTask
{
private final ReferenceToReallyBigObject object;
public Task(ReferenceToReallyBigObject object)
{
this.object = object;
}
public void run()
{
// Do some stuff with the object (which is immutable).
}
}
What happens is that even though I merely pass a reference to my data to all of the tasks, when the tasks are serialized, the data gets copied over and over. What I want to do is share the object among all of the tasks. Naturally, I might modify the class like so:
// AbstractTask implements Serializable
public class Task extends AbstractTask
{
private static ReferenceToReallyBigObject object = null;
private final String filePath;
public Task(String filePath)
{
this.filePath = filePath;
}
public void run()
{
synchronized(this)
{
if(object == null)
{
ObjectReader reader = new ObjectReader(filePath);
object = reader.read();
}
}
// Do some stuff with the object (which is immutable).
}
}
As you can see, even here I have the issue that passing a different file path means nothing after the first one is passed. This is why I like the idea for a store which was posted in the answers. Anyhow, rather than including the logic for loading the file in the run method, I wanted to abstract this logic into a Singleton class. I will not provide yet another example, but I hope you get the idea. Please let me hear your ideas for a more elegant way to accomplish what I am trying to do. Thank you again!
Solution 1:
I'll make my point very clear: a singleton with parameters is not a singleton.
A singleton, by definition, is an object you want to be instantiated no more than once. If you are trying to feed parameters to the constructor, what is the point of the singleton?
You have two options. If you want your singleton to be initialized with some data, you may load it with data after instantiation, like so:
SingletonObj singleton = SingletonObj.getInstance();
singleton.init(paramA, paramB); // init the object with data
If the operation your singleton is performing is recurring, and with different parameters every time, you might as well pass the parameters to the main method being executed:
SingletonObj singleton = SingletonObj.getInstance();
singleton.doSomething(paramA, paramB); // pass parameters on execution
In any case, instantiation will always be parameter-less. Otherwise your singleton is not a singleton.
Solution 2:
I think you need something like a factory to have objects with various parameters instantiated and reused. It could be implemented by using a synchronized HashMap or ConcurrentHashMap map a parameter (an Integer for an example) to your 'singleton' parameterizable class.
Although you might get to the point where you should use regular, non-singleton classes instead (for example needing 10.000 differently parametrized singleton).
Here is an example for such store:
public final class UsefulObjFactory {
private static Map<Integer, UsefulObj> store =
new HashMap<Integer, UsefulObj>();
public static final class UsefulObj {
private UsefulObj(int parameter) {
// init
}
public void someUsefulMethod() {
// some useful operation
}
}
public static UsefulObj get(int parameter) {
synchronized (store) {
UsefulObj result = store.get(parameter);
if (result == null) {
result = new UsefulObj(parameter);
store.put(parameter, result);
}
return result;
}
}
}
To push it even further, the Java enums can be also considered (or used as) parametrized singletons, although allowing only a fixed number static variants.
However, if you need a distributed1 solution, consider some lateral caching solution. For example: EHCache, Terracotta, etc.
1 in the sense of spanning multiple VMs on probably multiple computers.
Solution 3:
You can add a configurable initialization method in order to separate instantiation from getting.
public class Singleton {
private static Singleton singleton = null;
private final int x;
private Singleton(int x) {
this.x = x;
}
public static Singleton getInstance() {
if(singleton == null) {
throw new AssertionError("You have to call init first");
}
return singleton;
}
public synchronized static Singleton init(int x) {
if (singleton != null)
{
// in my opinion this is optional, but for the purists it ensures
// that you only ever get the same instance when you call getInstance
throw new AssertionError("You already initialized me");
}
singleton = new Singleton(x);
return singleton;
}
}
Then you can call Singleton.init(123) once to configure it, for example in your app startup.
Solution 4:
You can also use the Builder pattern if you want to show that some parameters are mandatory.
public enum EnumSingleton {
INSTANCE;
private String name; // Mandatory
private Double age = null; // Not Mandatory
private void build(SingletonBuilder builder) {
this.name = builder.name;
this.age = builder.age;
}
// Static getter
public static EnumSingleton getSingleton() {
return INSTANCE;
}
public void print() {
System.out.println("Name "+name + ", age: "+age);
}
public static class SingletonBuilder {
private final String name; // Mandatory
private Double age = null; // Not Mandatory
private SingletonBuilder(){
name = null;
}
SingletonBuilder(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public SingletonBuilder age(double age) {
this.age = age;
return this;
}
public void build(){
EnumSingleton.INSTANCE.build(this);
}
}
}
Then you could create/instantiate/parametrized it as follow:
public static void main(String[] args) {
new EnumSingleton.SingletonBuilder("nico").age(41).build();
EnumSingleton.getSingleton().print();
}
Solution 5:
Surprised that no one mentioned how a logger is created/retrieved. For example, below shows how Log4J logger is retrieved.
// Retrieve a logger named according to the value of the name parameter. If the named logger already exists, then the existing instance will be returned. Otherwise, a new instance is created.
public static Logger getLogger(String name)
There are some levels of indirections, but the key part is below method which pretty much tells everything about how it works. It uses a hash table to store the exiting loggers and the key is derived from name. If the logger doesn't exist for a give name, it uses a factory to create the logger and then adds it to the hash table.
69 Hashtable ht;
...
258 public
259 Logger getLogger(String name, LoggerFactory factory) {
260 //System.out.println("getInstance("+name+") called.");
261 CategoryKey key = new CategoryKey(name);
262 // Synchronize to prevent write conflicts. Read conflicts (in
263 // getChainedLevel method) are possible only if variable
264 // assignments are non-atomic.
265 Logger logger;
266
267 synchronized(ht) {
268 Object o = ht.get(key);
269 if(o == null) {
270 logger = factory.makeNewLoggerInstance(name);
271 logger.setHierarchy(this);
272 ht.put(key, logger);
273 updateParents(logger);
274 return logger;
275 } else if(o instanceof Logger) {
276 return (Logger) o;
277 }
...