CompletableFuture
Explore how CompletableFuture in Java allows you to run tasks asynchronously without blocking, chain multiple operations seamlessly, consume results efficiently, and handle exceptions gracefully. This lesson helps you build fluid, non-blocking async workflows using modern concurrency tools to improve application responsiveness and performance.
We'll cover the following...
We’ve learned how to run tasks in the background using Future and Callable. However, standard futures have a significant limitation: retrieving the result is a blocking operation. We have to sit and wait for the calculation to finish using .get(), which stalls our program.
Real-world applications need a more fluid approach. We need to define a sequence of steps that fetches data, processes it, and saves it, which flows automatically from one stage to the next without holding up the main application. This is where CompletableFuture provides a more flexible programming model, allowing us to build non-blocking pipelines that “push” data forward as soon as it is ready.
Starting asynchronous tasks
The CompletableFuture class allows us to initiate background tasks easily without manually managing thread pools. We primarily use two static methods to start these tasks: runAsync and supplyAsync.
runAsync: Takes aRunnableand is used for tasks that perform an action ...