Concurrent Modification Exception : adding to an ArrayList

Java Android Exception Arraylist Iteration

Java Problem Overview

The problem occurs at

Element element = it.next();

And this code which contains that line, is inside of an OnTouchEvent

for (Iterator<Element> it = mElements.iterator(); it.hasNext();){
	Element element = it.next();
	
	if(touchX > element.mX  && touchX < element.mX + element.mBitmap.getWidth() && touchY > element.mY   
			&& touchY < element.mY + element.mBitmap.getHeight()) {	 
		
		//irrelevant stuff..
		
		if(element.cFlag){
			mElements.add(new Element("crack",getResources(), (int)touchX,(int)touchY));
			element.cFlag = false;
		
		}			
	}
}

All of this is inside synchronized(mElements), where mElements is an ArrayList<Element>

When I touch an Element, it may activate cFlag, which will create another Element with different properties, which will fall off the screen and destroy itself in less than a second. It's my way of creating particle effects. We can call this "particle" crack, like the String parameter in the constructor.

This all works fine until I add another main Element. Now I have two Elements on the screen at the same time, and if I touch the newest Element, it works fine, and launches the particles.

However, if I touch and activate cFlag on the older Element, then it gives me the exception.

 07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026): java.util.ConcurrentModificationException
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at java.util.ArrayList$ArrayListIterator.next(ArrayList.java:573)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at com.Juggle2.Panel.onTouchEvent(Panel.java:823)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at android.view.View.dispatchTouchEvent(View.java:3766)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1767)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1119)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at android.app.Activity.dispatchTouchEvent(Activity.java:2086)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1751)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at android.view.ViewRoot.handleMessage(ViewRoot.java:1785)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4627)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:893)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:651)
07-28 15:36:59.815: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4026):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

How can I make this work?

Java Solutions

Solution 1 - Java

ConcurrentModificationException occurs when you modify the list (by adding or removing elements) while traversing a list with Iterator.

Try

List<Element> thingsToBeAdd = new ArrayList<Element>();
for(Iterator<Element> it = mElements.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
    Element element = it.next();
    if(...) {  
        //irrelevant stuff..
        if(element.cFlag){
            // mElements.add(new Element("crack",getResources(), (int)touchX,(int)touchY));
            thingsToBeAdd.add(new Element("crack",getResources(), (int)touchX,(int)touchY));
            element.cFlag = false;
        }           
    }
}
mElements.addAll(thingsToBeAdd );

Also you should consider enhanced for each loop as Jon suggested.

Solution 2 - Java

I normally use something like this:

for (Element element : new ArrayList<Element>(mElements)) {
    ...
}

quick, clean and bug-free

another option is to use CopyOnWriteArrayList

Solution 3 - Java

You're not allowed to add an entry to a collection while you're iterating over it.

One option is to create a new List<Element> for new entries while you're iterating over mElements, and then add all the new ones to mElement afterwards (mElements.addAll(newElements)). Of course, that means you won't have executed the loop body for those new elements - is that a problem?

At the same time, I'd recommend that you update your code to use the enhanced for loop:

for (Element element : mElements) {
    ...
}

Solution 4 - Java

An indexed for loop should also work.

for (int i = 0; i < collection.size(); i++)

Solution 5 - Java

Using Iterators also fixes concurrency problems, like this:

Iterator<Object> it = iterator.next().iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
    it.remove();
}

Solution 6 - Java

adding from list in this case leads to CME, no amount of synchronized will let you avoid that. Instead, consider adding using the iterator...

        for(ListIterator<Element> it = mElements.listIterator(); it.hasNext();){
            Element element = it.next();

            if(touchX > element.mX  && touchX < element.mX + element.mBitmap.getWidth() && touchY > element.mY   
                    && touchY < element.mY + element.mBitmap.getHeight()) {  

                //irrelevant stuff..

                if(element.cFlag){
                    // mElements.add(new Element("crack",getResources(), (int)touchX,(int)touchY));
                    it.add(new Element("crack",getResources(), (int)touchX,(int)touchY));
                    element.cFlag = false;

                }           
            }
        }

Also I think it's somewhat slippery to state like...

> ...The problem occurs at Element element = it.next();

for the sake of precision note that above is not guaranteed.

API documentation points out that this ...behavior cannot be guaranteed as it is, generally speaking, impossible to make any hard guarantees in the presence of unsynchronized concurrent modification. Fail-fast operations throw ConcurrentModificationException on a best-effort basis...

Solution 7 - Java

I solved creating a lock (Kotlin):

import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock

Class A {
    private val listLock = ReentrantLock()
    fun doSomething(newElement){
        listLock.lock()
        list.add(newElement)
        listLock.unlock()
    }
}

Solution 8 - Java

Well i have tried all the aspects in my case where i was iterating in an adapter a list but due to hitting again and again i showed me the message of exception being thrown . I tried Casting the list to

 = (CopyOnWriteArraylist<MyClass>)mylist.value;

but it also throwed me an exception of CouldNotCastException,(and i finally pondered over the fact that why do they use or provide us a facality of casting).

I even used the so called Synchronized Block too, but even it didn't worked or i might would have been using it in a wrong way.

Thus it's all when i finally used the #all of time# Technique of handling the exception in try catch block, and it worked So put your code in the

try{
//block

}catch(ConcurrentModificationException){
//thus handling my code over here
}

Solution 9 - Java

You could use an auto-decrement for loop, and deal with the additional elements next time.

List additionalElements = new ArrayList();
for(int i = mElements.size() - 1; i > -1 ; i--){
    //your business
    additionalElements.add(newElement);
}
mElements.add(additionalElements);

Solution 10 - Java

The accepted solution (to create a copy of the collection) usually works well.

However, if the Element contains another collection this does not make a deep copy!

Example:

class Element {
   List<Kid> kids;

   getKids() {
      return kids;
   }
}

Now when you create a copy of the List of Elements:

for (Element element : new ArrayList<Element>(elements)) { ... }

You can still get a ConcurrentModificationException if you iterate over element.getKids() and, parally, alter the kids of that element.

Looking back it's obvious, but I ended up in this thread so maybe this hint helps others, too:

class Element {
   List<Kid> kids;

   getKids() {
      // Return a copy of the child collection
      return new ArrayList<Kid>(kids);
   }
}

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	user773737	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Java	user802421	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Java	konmik	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Java	Jon Skeet	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Java	User	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Java	David Bemerguy	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Java	gnat	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Java	marcolav	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Java	Siddharth Choudhary	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Java	Saren	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Java	hb0	View Answer on Stackoverflow