Why and when to use AtomicIntegerFieldUpdater?

Question

Why and when should one use these classes?

• AtomicIntegerFieldUpdater
• AtomicMarkableReference
• AtomicReference

Kindly explain using a real life scenario!

Answer 1

AtomicIntegerFieldUpdater can be used if said field needs to be used as just regular volatile field (without declaring them as AtomicXXX class) but needs atomic operations occasionally. Also, if you are creating a lot of objects and you don't want to create a lot of AtomicXXX objects, you can create a static AtomicIntegerFieldUpdater object and let it be shared between all the objects. This article explains more in detail.