Is it optimal to use the double checked locking idiom for the singleton pattern?

Question

Is it better to use the double checked locking idiom for a singleton pattern? Or a synchronised method?

ie:

private static volatile ProcessManager singleton = null;

public static ProcessManager getInstance() throws Exception {

    if (singleton == null) {
       synchronized (MyClass.class) {
          if (singleton == null) {
               singleton = new ProcessManager();
         }
      }
   }
   return singleton;

}

or

private static processManager singleton = null;

public synchronized static processManager getInsatnce() throws Exception {

   if(singleton == null) {
            singleton = new processManager();
    }

    return singleton
 }

Answer 1

Have the ClassLoader do the job for you :

    /*
     * This solution takes advantage of the Java memory model's guarantees about class initialization
     * to ensure thread safety. Each class can only be loaded once, and it will only be loaded when it
     * is needed. That means that the first time getInstance is called, mySingletonServiceLoader
     * will be loaded and instance will be created, and since this is controlled by ClassLoaders,
     * no additional synchronization is necessary.
     */
    public static DocumentService getInstance() {
        return mySingletonServiceLoader.INSTANCE;
    }

    private static class mySingletonServiceLoader {
         static DocumentService INSTANCE = new DocumentService();
    }
}