I have a class which is not allowed to access certain objects from multiple threads. (Similar to a d...

# coroutines

[Thomas]

I have a class which is not allowed to access certain objects from multiple threads. (Similar to a database). The function newSingleThreadContext should do what I want but that creates its own thread pool, which will cause unnecessary thread switching. The doc links to issue #261. Is there an update on that issue?

[elizarov]

It is thread-confined (you have to to use it from one specific thread because it maybe uses thread-locals internally or otherwise remembers an explicit reference to a thread somewhere) or is just not thread-safe as most regular data-structures are (you cannot use it concurrently from two threads, but using it from one thread, then sequentially from another thread, is fine)?

[elizarov]

Your "similar to database" is unfortunately of little help to understand your specific problem, as different database drivers and implementations are different w.r.t. thread-safety. For example, a typical JDBC Connection is usually not thread-safe but is not confined to a thread, which is used by a typical connection pool, but some C-based DB technologies (like low-level sqlite API) are often thread-confined due to thread-local data structures they internally use.

[Thomas]

@elizarov thanks for explaining. What I need is something which runs sequentially (thread safe). It shouldn't matter which thread it runs, it just cannot happen concurrently.

[elizarov]

Then you don't need anything special. Just make sure you access it from a single coroutine. You can read more here: https://proandroiddev.com/what-is-concurrent-access-to-mutable-state-f386e5cb8292

[Thomas]

@elizarov your article is very helpful and I understand much better now. Thank you for your help!