What is the purpose of AtomicInteger in Java?

AtomicInteger in Java is a class designed for achieving atomic operations in a multi-threaded environment, ensuring the atomicity of the operations.

In a multi-threaded environment, multiple threads operating on the same shared variable may lead to concurrency issues. For example, if thread A and thread B both try to increment the variable simultaneously and without the use of atomic classes, the result may not be as expected. Using the AtomicInteger class can ensure the atomicity of the increment operation, meaning that only one thread can perform the increment operation at a time, guaranteeing the integrity of the operation.

The AtomicInteger class offers a range of atomic operations such as incrementAndGet(), getAndIncrement(), decrementAndGet(), getAndDecrement(), which ensure that the variable’s increment or decrement operations are atomic.

In addition, the AtomicInteger class also offers other methods such as compareAndSet(), which can achieve atomic compare and set operations.

In conclusion, the purpose of the AtomicInteger class is to provide atomic operations in a multi-threaded environment, ensuring that operations on variables are atomic and avoiding concurrency issues.