Difference between Traditional Collections and Concurrent Collections in java


In Java as we know that Collections are one of most important concept which makes Java as a powerful language in itself. It is only support of collections in Java which make it to support any type of data in a convenient and efficient way along with possible CRUD operations over them.

But on same phase when collections get exposed to the multi-threading its performance get somewhat degraded because of somewhere collections lack the support to multi-threading environment. To overcome this limitation Java introduces Concurrent Collections which not only overcome the multi-threading environment limitation but also enhances the Java to perform with multiple threads data.

Following are the important differences between Traditional Collections and Concurrent Collections.

Sr.No.KeyTraditional CollectionsConcurrent Collections
1Thread SafetyMost of the classic classes in Java Collections such as Array List, Linked List, Hash Map etc. are not synchronized and are not thread safe in multi-threading environment.On other hand Java introduces same classes in Concurrent Collections with implement synchronization in them which not only make these classes as Synchronized but also thread safe in nature.
2Locking MechanismWe have some synchronized classes in traditional collections as well such as Vector and Stack but these classes uses lock over whole collection which reduces performance and speed of execution.On other hand concurrent collections introduces concept of partial locking where it locks only part of collection in case of multi-threading environment which improves the performance and speed of collections in such environment.
3Runtime ExceptionIn case of traditional collections if we try to modify a collection through separate thread during collection iteration then we got Runtime Exception ConcurrentModificationException.On other hand one would not get such exception if deals with the concurrent collections i.e. concurrent collections allows modification in collection during its iteration.
4PreferenceDue to reason mentioned in above points traditional collections are not preferred in multi-threading environment.On other hand Concurrent collections are primarily preferred in multi-threading environment.
5Introduction in marketTraditional collections are type of legacy collection in Java and are introduced before concurrent collections.While concurrent collections are introduced in JDK 1.5 i.e. are introduced after traditional collections.

Updated on: 24-Feb-2020

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