Future

public interface Future

java.util.concurrent.Future<V>

Known indirect subclasses

CompletableFuture<T>, CountedCompleter<T>, ForkJoinTask<V>, FutureTask<V>, RecursiveAction, RecursiveTask<V>, RunnableFuture<V>, RunnableScheduledFuture<V>, ScheduledFuture<V>

CompletableFuture<T>	A `Future` that may be explicitly completed (setting its value and status), and may be used as a `CompletionStage`, supporting dependent functions and actions that trigger upon its completion.
CountedCompleter<T>	A `ForkJoinTask` with a completion action performed when triggered and there are no remaining pending actions.
ForkJoinTask<V>	Abstract base class for tasks that run within a `ForkJoinPool`.
FutureTask<V>	A cancellable asynchronous computation.
RecursiveAction	A recursive resultless `ForkJoinTask`.
RecursiveTask<V>	A recursive result-bearing `ForkJoinTask`.
RunnableFuture<V>	A `Future` that is `Runnable`.
RunnableScheduledFuture<V>	A `ScheduledFuture` that is `Runnable`.
ScheduledFuture<V>	A delayed result-bearing action that can be cancelled.

A Future represents the result of an asynchronous computation. Methods are provided to check if the computation is complete, to wait for its completion, and to retrieve the result of the computation. The result can only be retrieved using method get when the computation has completed, blocking if necessary until it is ready. Cancellation is performed by the cancel method. Additional methods are provided to determine if the task completed normally or was cancelled. Once a computation has completed, the computation cannot be cancelled. If you would like to use a Future for the sake of cancellability but not provide a usable result, you can declare types of the form Future<?> and return null as a result of the underlying task.

Sample Usage (Note that the following classes are all made-up.)

 interface ArchiveSearcher { String search(String target); }
 class App {
   ExecutorService executor = ...;
   ArchiveSearcher searcher = ...;
   void showSearch(String target) throws InterruptedException {
     Callable<String> task = () -> searcher.search(target);
     Future<String> future = executor.submit(task);
     displayOtherThings(); // do other things while searching
     try {
       displayText(future.get()); // use future
     } catch (ExecutionException ex) { cleanup(); return; }
   }
 }

The FutureTask class is an implementation of Future that implements Runnable, and so may be executed by an Executor. For example, the above construction with submit could be replaced by:

 FutureTask<String> future = new FutureTask<>(task);
 executor.execute(future);

Memory consistency effects: Actions taken by the asynchronous computation happen-before actions following the corresponding Future.get() in another thread.

See also:

FutureTask
Executor

Summary

Public methods
`abstract boolean`	`cancel(boolean mayInterruptIfRunning)` Attempts to cancel execution of this task.
`abstract V`	`get(long timeout, TimeUnit unit)` Waits if necessary for at most the given time for the computation to complete, and then retrieves its result, if available.
`abstract V`	`get()` Waits if necessary for the computation to complete, and then retrieves its result.
`abstract boolean`	`isCancelled()` Returns `true` if this task was cancelled before it completed normally.
`abstract boolean`	`isDone()` Returns `true` if this task completed.

Public methods

cancel

Added in API level 1

public abstract boolean cancel (boolean mayInterruptIfRunning)

Attempts to cancel execution of this task. This method has no effect if the task is already completed or cancelled, or could not be cancelled for some other reason. Otherwise, if this task has not started when cancel is called, this task should never run. If the task has already started, then the mayInterruptIfRunning parameter determines whether the thread executing this task (when known by the implementation) is interrupted in an attempt to stop the task.

The return value from this method does not necessarily indicate whether the task is now cancelled; use isCancelled().

Parameters
`mayInterruptIfRunning`	`boolean`: `true` if the thread executing this task should be interrupted (if the thread is known to the implementation); otherwise, in-progress tasks are allowed to complete

Returns
`boolean`	`false` if the task could not be cancelled, typically because it has already completed; `true` otherwise. If two or more threads cause a task to be cancelled, then at least one of them returns `true`. Implementations may provide stronger guarantees.

get

Added in API level 1

public abstract V get (long timeout, 
                TimeUnit unit)

Waits if necessary for at most the given time for the computation to complete, and then retrieves its result, if available.

Parameters
`timeout`	`long`: the maximum time to wait
`unit`	`TimeUnit`: the time unit of the timeout argument

Returns
`V`	the computed result

Throws
`CancellationException`	if the computation was cancelled
`ExecutionException`	if the computation threw an exception
`InterruptedException`	if the current thread was interrupted while waiting
`TimeoutException`	if the wait timed out

get

Added in API level 1

public abstract V get ()

Waits if necessary for the computation to complete, and then retrieves its result.

Returns
`V`	the computed result

Throws
`CancellationException`	if the computation was cancelled
`ExecutionException`	if the computation threw an exception
`InterruptedException`	if the current thread was interrupted while waiting

isCancelled

Added in API level 1

public abstract boolean isCancelled ()

Returns true if this task was cancelled before it completed normally.

Returns
`boolean`	`true` if this task was cancelled before it completed

isDone

Added in API level 1

public abstract boolean isDone ()

Returns true if this task completed. Completion may be due to normal termination, an exception, or cancellation -- in all of these cases, this method will return true.

Returns
`boolean`	`true` if this task completed