InconsistentPropertySynchronization.md

Pattern: Inconsistent property synchronization

Issue: -

Description

Class contains similarly-named get and set methods where the set method is synchronized and the get method is not, or the get method is synchronized and the set method is not. This may result in incorrect behavior at runtime, as callers of the get and set methods will not necessarily see a consistent state for the object. The get and set method should both be synchronized or neither should be synchronized.

Example of violations:

class Person {
    String name
    Date birthday
    boolean deceased
    boolean parent
    int weight

    synchronized setName(String name) {
        this.name = name
    }
    // violation, get method should be synchronized
    String getName() {
        name
    }

    // violation, set method should be synchronized
    void setBirthday(Date birthday) {
        this.birthday = birthday
    }

    synchronized String getBirthday() {
        birthday
    }

    // violation, set method should be synchronized
    void setDeceased(boolean deceased) {
        this.deceased = deceased
    }

    synchronized boolean isDeceased() {
        deceased
    }

    synchronized void setParent(boolean parent) {
        this.parent = parent
    }

    // violation, get method should be synchronized
    boolean isParent() {
        parent
    }

    // violation get method should be synchronized
    @groovy.transform.Synchronized
    void setWeight(int value) {
        weight = value
    }
}

Further Reading

• CodeNarc - InconsistentPropertySynchronization