java.util.ConcurrentModificationException

java.util.ConcurrentModificationException

   Exception description:

     public class ConcurrentModificationException extends  RuntimeException

This exception may be thrown by methods that have detected concurrent modification of an object when such modification is not permissible.

For example, it is not generally permissible for one thread to modify a Collection while another thread is iterating over it. In general, the results of the iteration are undefined under these circumstances. Some Iterator implementations (including those of all the general purpose collection implementations provided by the JRE) may choose to throw this exception if this behavior is detected. Iterators that do this are known as fail-fast iterators, as they fail quickly and cleanly, rather that risking arbitrary, non-deterministic behavior at an undetermined time in the future.

Note that this exception does not always indicate that an object has been concurrently modified by a different thread. If a single thread issues a sequence of method invocations that violates the contract of an object, the object may throw this exception. For example, if a thread modifies a collection directly while it is iterating over the collection with a fail-fast iterator, the iterator will throw this exception.

Note that fail-fast 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. Therefore, it would be wrong to write a program that depended on this exception for its correctness: ConcurrentModificationException should be used only to detect bugs.
 

工作中碰到个ConcurrentModificationException。代码如下：
List list = ...;
for(Iterator iter = list.iterator(); iter.hasNext();) {
    Object obj = iter.next();
    ...
    if(***) {
        list.remove(obj);
    }
}
在执行了remove方法之后，再去执行循环，iter.next()的时候，报java.util.ConcurrentModificationException(当然，如果remove的是最后一条，就不会再去执行next()操作了)

下面来看一下源码
public interface Iterator<E> {
    boolean hasNext();
    E next();
    void remove();
}

public interface Collection<E> extends Iterable<E> {
    ...
    Iterator<E> iterator();
    boolean add(E o);
    boolean remove(Object o);
    ...
}
这里有两个remove方法

接下来来看看AbstractList
public abstract class AbstractList<E> extends AbstractCollection<E> implements List<E> { 
//AbstractCollection和List都继承了Collection
    protected transient int modCount = 0;
    private class Itr implements Iterator<E> {  //内部类Itr
        int cursor = 0;
        int lastRet = -1;
        int expectedModCount = modCount;

        public boolean hasNext() {
            return cursor != size();
        }

        public E next() {
            checkForComodification();  //特别注意这个方法
            try {
                E next = get(cursor);
                lastRet = cursor++;
                return next;
            } catch(IndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
                checkForComodification();
                throw new NoSuchElementException();
            }
        }

        public void remove() {
            if (lastRet == -1)
                throw new IllegalStateException();
            checkForComodification();

            try {
                AbstractList.this.remove(lastRet);  //执行remove对象的操作
                if (lastRet < cursor)
                    cursor--;
                lastRet = -1;
                expectedModCount = modCount;  //重新设置了expectedModCount的值，避免了ConcurrentModificationException的产生
            } catch(IndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
                throw new ConcurrentModificationException();
            }
        }

        final void checkForComodification() {
            if (modCount != expectedModCount)  //当expectedModCount和modCount不相等时，就抛出ConcurrentModificationException
                throw new ConcurrentModificationException();
        }
    }   
}

remove(Object o)在ArrayList中实现如下：
public boolean remove(Object o) {
    if (o == null) {
            for (int index = 0; index < size; index++)
        if (elementData[index] == null) {
            fastRemove(index);
            return true;
        }
    } else {
        for (int index = 0; index < size; index++)
            if (o.equals(elementData[index])) {
                fastRemove(index);
                return true;
            }
    }
    return false;
}
private void fastRemove(int index) {
    modCount++;  //只增加了modCount
    ....
}

所以，产生ConcurrentModificationException的原因就是：
执行remove(Object o)方法之后，modCount和expectedModCount不相等了。然后当代码执行到next()方法时，判断了checkForComodification()，发现两个数值不等，就抛出了该Exception。
要避免这个Exception，就应该使用remove()方法。
这里我们就不看add(Object o)方法了，也是同样的原因，但没有对应的add()方法。一般嘛，就另建一个List了


下面是网上的其他解释，更能从本质上解释原因：
Iterator 是工作在一个独立的线程中，并且拥有一个 mutex 锁。 Iterator 被创建之后会建立一个指向原来对象的单链索引表，当原来的对象数量发生变化时，这个索引表的内容不会同步改变，所以当索引指针往后移动的时候就找不到要迭代的对象，所以按照 fail-fast 原则 Iterator 会马上抛出 java.util.ConcurrentModificationException 异常。
所以 Iterator 在工作的时候是不允许被迭代的对象被改变的。但你可以使用 Iterator 本身的方法 remove() 来删除对象， Iterator.remove() 方法会在删除当前迭代对象的同时维护索引的一致性。