How to Avoid java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException

The java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException is a checked exception in Java that is thrown when a blocking operation times out.

Since java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException is a checked exception, it must be explicitly handled in methods which can throw this exception - either by using a try-catch block or by throwing it using the throws clause.

What Causes java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException

Blocking operations in Java that have a specified timeout require a way to indicate that the timeout has occurred. For many such operations, it is possible to return a value that indicates timeout. When this is not possible or desirable, TimeoutException should be thrown.

java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException Example

Here is an example of a TimeoutException thrown when a thread awaits at a barrier until the specified timeout elapses:

import java.util.concurrent.BrokenBarrierException;
import java.util.concurrent.CyclicBarrier;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;

class TimeoutExceptionExample {
    public static void main(String args[]) throws TimeoutException, InterruptedException, BrokenBarrierException {
        CyclicBarrier barrier = new CyclicBarrier(2);
        barrier.await(10, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
    }
}

In the above example, the main thread invokes the await() method on an instance of CyclicBarrier with a specified timeout of 10 milliseconds. When the barrier is not reached by other threads within the specified timeout, a TimeoutException is thrown:

Exception in thread "main" java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CyclicBarrier.dowait(CyclicBarrier.java:257)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CyclicBarrier.await(CyclicBarrier.java:435)
    at TimeoutExceptionExample.main(TimeoutExceptionExample.java:9)

How to Avoid java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException

To avoid the TimeoutException, any blocking operations that have a specified timeout should not exceed the timeout. When this is not possible, returning a value such as boolean, which indicates that a timeout has occurred, should be considered rather than throwing a TimeoutException.

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