Why is Java's SimpleDateFormat not thread-safe? [duplicate]

Please tell with a code example why is SimpleDateFormat not threadsafe. What is the problem in this class? Is The problem with format function of SimpleDateFormat? Please give a code which demonstrates this fault in class.

FastDateFormat is threadsafe. Why? what is the difference b/w the SimpleDateFormat and FastDateFormat?

Please explain with a code which demonstrates this issue?

SimpleDateFormat stores intermediate results in instance fields. So if one instance is used by two threads they can mess each other's results.

Looking at the source code reveals that there is a Calendar instance field, which is used by operations on DateFormat / SimpleDateFormat.

For example parse(..) calls calendar.clear() initially and then calendar.add(..). If another thread invokes parse(..) before the completion of the first invocation, it will clear the calendar, but the other invocation will expect it to be populated with intermediate results of the calculation.

One way to reuse date formats without trading thread-safety is to put them in a ThreadLocal - some libraries do that. That's if you need to use the same format multiple times within one thread. But in case you are using a servlet container (that has a thread pool), remember to clean the thread-local after you finish.

To be honest, I don't understand why they need the instance field, but that's the way it is. You can also use joda-time DateTimeFormat which is threadsafe.

SimpleDateFormat is a concrete class for formatting and parsing dates in a locale-sensitive manner.

From the JavaDoc,

But Date formats are not synchronized. It is recommended to create separate format instances for each thread. If multiple threads access a format concurrently, it must be synchronized externally.

To make the SimpleDateFormat class thread-safe, look at the following approaches :

• Create a new SimpleDateFormat instance each time you need to use one. Although this is thread safe, it is the slowest possible approach.
• Use synchronization. This is a bad idea because you should never choke-point your threads on a server.
• Use a ThreadLocal. This is the fastest approach of the 3 (see http://www.javacodegeeks.com/2010/07/java-best-practices-dateformat-in.html).

DateTimeFormatter in Java 8 is immutable and thread-safe alternative to SimpleDateFormat.

ThreadLocal + SimpleDateFormat = SimpleDateFormatThreadSafe

package com.foocoders.text;

import java.text.AttributedCharacterIterator;
import java.text.DateFormatSymbols;
import java.text.FieldPosition;
import java.text.NumberFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.ParsePosition;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.TimeZone;

public class SimpleDateFormatThreadSafe extends SimpleDateFormat {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 5448371898056188202L;
    ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat> localSimpleDateFormat;

    public SimpleDateFormatThreadSafe() {
        super();
        localSimpleDateFormat = new ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat>() {
            protected SimpleDateFormat initialValue() {
                return new SimpleDateFormat();
            }
        };
    }

    public SimpleDateFormatThreadSafe(final String pattern) {
        super(pattern);
        localSimpleDateFormat = new ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat>() {
            protected SimpleDateFormat initialValue() {
                return new SimpleDateFormat(pattern);
            }
        };
    }

    public SimpleDateFormatThreadSafe(final String pattern, final DateFormatSymbols formatSymbols) {
        super(pattern, formatSymbols);
        localSimpleDateFormat = new ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat>() {
            protected SimpleDateFormat initialValue() {
                return new SimpleDateFormat(pattern, formatSymbols);
            }
        };
    }

    public SimpleDateFormatThreadSafe(final String pattern, final Locale locale) {
        super(pattern, locale);
        localSimpleDateFormat = new ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat>() {
            protected SimpleDateFormat initialValue() {
                return new SimpleDateFormat(pattern, locale);
            }
        };
    }

    public Object parseObject(String source) throws ParseException {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().parseObject(source);
    }

    public String toString() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().toString();
    }

    public Date parse(String source) throws ParseException {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().parse(source);
    }

    public Object parseObject(String source, ParsePosition pos) {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().parseObject(source, pos);
    }

    public void setCalendar(Calendar newCalendar) {
        localSimpleDateFormat.get().setCalendar(newCalendar);
    }

    public Calendar getCalendar() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().getCalendar();
    }

    public void setNumberFormat(NumberFormat newNumberFormat) {
        localSimpleDateFormat.get().setNumberFormat(newNumberFormat);
    }

    public NumberFormat getNumberFormat() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().getNumberFormat();
    }

    public void setTimeZone(TimeZone zone) {
        localSimpleDateFormat.get().setTimeZone(zone);
    }

    public TimeZone getTimeZone() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().getTimeZone();
    }

    public void setLenient(boolean lenient) {
        localSimpleDateFormat.get().setLenient(lenient);
    }

    public boolean isLenient() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().isLenient();
    }

    public void set2DigitYearStart(Date startDate) {
        localSimpleDateFormat.get().set2DigitYearStart(startDate);
    }

    public Date get2DigitYearStart() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().get2DigitYearStart();
    }

    public StringBuffer format(Date date, StringBuffer toAppendTo, FieldPosition pos) {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().format(date, toAppendTo, pos);
    }

    public AttributedCharacterIterator formatToCharacterIterator(Object obj) {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().formatToCharacterIterator(obj);
    }

    public Date parse(String text, ParsePosition pos) {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().parse(text, pos);
    }

    public String toPattern() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().toPattern();
    }

    public String toLocalizedPattern() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().toLocalizedPattern();
    }

    public void applyPattern(String pattern) {
        localSimpleDateFormat.get().applyPattern(pattern);
    }

    public void applyLocalizedPattern(String pattern) {
        localSimpleDateFormat.get().applyLocalizedPattern(pattern);
    }

    public DateFormatSymbols getDateFormatSymbols() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().getDateFormatSymbols();
    }

    public void setDateFormatSymbols(DateFormatSymbols newFormatSymbols) {
        localSimpleDateFormat.get().setDateFormatSymbols(newFormatSymbols);
    }

    public Object clone() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().clone();
    }

    public int hashCode() {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().hashCode();
    }

    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        return localSimpleDateFormat.get().equals(obj);
    }

}

https://gist.github.com/pablomoretti/9748230

Release 3.2 of commons-lang will have FastDateParser class that is a thread-safe substitute of SimpleDateFormat for Gregorian calendar. See LANG-909 for more information.