vault backup: 2025-12-10 11:37:35
This commit is contained in:
Thomas Peetz
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---
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title: Guide To CompletableFuture | Baeldung
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source: https://www.baeldung.com/java-completablefuture
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tags:
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- IT/Development/Java
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---
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**Inhaltsverzeichnis**
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1. [[#Introduction|Introduction]]
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1. [[#Asynchronous Computation in Java|Asynchronous Computation in Java]]
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1. [[#Using *CompletableFuture* as a Simple *Future*|Using *CompletableFuture* as a Simple *Future*]]
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1. [[#*CompletableFuture* with Encapsulated Computation Logic|*CompletableFuture* with Encapsulated Computation Logic]]
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1. [[#Processing Results of Asynchronous Computations|Processing Results of Asynchronous Computations]]
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1. [[#Combining Futures|Combining Futures]]
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1. [[#Difference Between *thenApply()* and *thenCompose()*|Difference Between *thenApply()* and *thenCompose()*]]
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1. [[#Difference Between *thenApply()* and *thenCompose()*#*thenApply()*|*thenApply()*]]
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1. [[#Difference Between *thenApply()* and *thenCompose()*#*thenCompose()*|*thenCompose()*]]
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1. [[#Running Multiple *Futures* in Parallel|Running Multiple *Futures* in Parallel]]
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1. [[#Handling Errors|Handling Errors]]
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1. [[#Async Methods|Async Methods]]
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1. [[#JDK 9 *CompletableFuture* API|JDK 9 *CompletableFuture* API]]
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1. [[#Conclusion|Conclusion]]
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## Introduction
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This tutorial is a guide to the functionality and use cases of the *CompletableFuture* class that was introduced as a Java 8 Concurrency API improvement.
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## Asynchronous Computation in Java
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Asynchronous computation is difficult to reason about. Usually, we want to think of any computation as a series of steps, but in the case of asynchronous computation, **actions represented as callbacks tend to be either scattered across the code or deeply nested inside each other**. Things get even worse when we need to handle errors that might occur during one of the steps.
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The *Future* interface was added in Java 5 to serve as a result of an asynchronous computation, but it did not have any methods to combine these computations or handle possible errors.
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**Java 8 introduced the *CompletableFuture* class.** Along with the *Future* interface, it also implemented the *CompletionStage* interface. This interface defines the contract for an asynchronous computation step that we can combine with other steps.
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*CompletableFuture* is at the same time, a building block and a framework, with **about 50 different methods for composing, combining, and executing asynchronous computation steps and handling errors**.
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Such a large API can be overwhelming, but these mostly fall into several clear and distinct use cases.
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## Using *CompletableFuture* as a Simple *Future*
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First, the *CompletableFuture* class implements the *Future* interface so that we can **use it as a *Future* implementation but with additional completion logic**.
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For example, we can create an instance of this class with a no-arg constructor to represent some future result, hand it out to the consumers, and complete it at some time in the future using the *complete* method. The consumers may use the *get* method to block the current thread until this result is provided.
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In the example below, we have a method that creates a *CompletableFuture* instance, then spins off some computation in another thread and returns the *Future* immediately.
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When the computation is done, the method completes the *Future* by providing the result to the *complete* method:
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```java
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public Future<String> calculateAsync() throws InterruptedException {
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CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture = new CompletableFuture<>();
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Executors.newCachedThreadPool().submit(() -> {
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Thread.sleep(500);
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completableFuture.complete("Hello");
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return null;
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});
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return completableFuture;
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}
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```
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To spin off the computation, we use the *Executor* API. This method of creating and completing a *CompletableFuture* can be used with any concurrency mechanism or API, including raw threads.
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Notice that **the *calculateAsync* method returns a *Future* instance**.
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We simply call the method, receive the *Future* instance, and call the *get* method on it when we're ready to block for the result.
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Also, observe that the *get* method throws some checked exceptions, namely *ExecutionException* (encapsulating an exception that occurred during a computation) and *InterruptedException* (an exception signifying that a thread was interrupted either before or during an activity):
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```java
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Future<String> completableFuture = calculateAsync();
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// ...
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String result = completableFuture.get();
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assertEquals("Hello", result);
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```
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**If we already know the result of a computation**, we can use the static *completedFuture* method with an argument that represents the result of this computation. Consequently, the *get* method of the *Future* will never block, immediately returning this result instead:
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```java
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Future<String> completableFuture =
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CompletableFuture.completedFuture("Hello");
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// ...
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String result = completableFuture.get();
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assertEquals("Hello", result);
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```
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As an alternative scenario, we may want to [**cancel the execution of a *Future***](https://www.baeldung.com/java-future#2-canceling-a-future-with-cancel).
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## *CompletableFuture* with Encapsulated Computation Logic
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The code above allows us to pick any mechanism of concurrent execution, but what if we want to skip this boilerplate and execute some code asynchronously?
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Static methods *runAsync* and *supplyAsync* allow us to create a *CompletableFuture* instance out of *Runnable* and *Supplier* functional types correspondingly.
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*Runnable* and *Supplier* are functional interfaces that allow passing their instances as lambda expressions thanks to the new Java 8 feature.
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The *Runnable* interface is the same old interface used in threads and does not allow to return a value.
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The *Supplier* interface is a generic functional interface with a single method that has no arguments and returns a value of a parameterized type.
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This allows us to **provide an instance of the *Supplier* as a lambda expression that does the calculation and returns the result**. It is as simple as:
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```java
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CompletableFuture<String> future
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Hello");
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// ...
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assertEquals("Hello", future.get());
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```
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## Processing Results of Asynchronous Computations
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The most generic way to process the result of a computation is to feed it to a function. The *thenApply* method does exactly that; it accepts a *Function* instance, uses it to process the result, and returns a *Future* that holds a value returned by a function:
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```java
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CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Hello");
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CompletableFuture<String> future = completableFuture
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.thenApply(s -> s + " World");
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assertEquals("Hello World", future.get());
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```
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If we don't need to return a value down the *Future* chain, we can use an instance of the *Consumer* functional interface. Its single method takes a parameter and returns *void*.
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There's a method for this use case in the *CompletableFuture.* The *thenAccept* method receives a *Consumer* and passes it the result of the computation. Then the final *future.get()* call returns an instance of the *Void* type:
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```java
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CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Hello");
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CompletableFuture<Void> future = completableFuture
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.thenAccept(s -> System.out.println("Computation returned: " + s));
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future.get();
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```
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Finally, if we neither need the value of the computation nor want to return some value at the end of the chain, then we can pass a *Runnable* lambda to the *thenRun* method. In the following example, we simply print a line in the console after calling the *future.get():*
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```java
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CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Hello");
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CompletableFuture<Void> future = completableFuture
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.thenRun(() -> System.out.println("Computation finished."));
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future.get();
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```
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## Combining Futures
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The best part of the *CompletableFuture* API is the **ability to combine *CompletableFuture* instances in a chain of computation steps**.
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The result of this chaining is itself a *CompletableFuture* that allows further chaining and combining. This approach is ubiquitous in functional languages and is often referred to as a monadic design pattern.
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**In the following example, we use the *thenCompose* method to chain two *Futures* sequentially.**
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Notice that this method takes a function that returns a *CompletableFuture* instance. The argument of this function is the result of the previous computation step. This allows us to use this value inside the next *CompletableFuture*‘s lambda:
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```java
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CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Hello")
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.thenCompose(s -> CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> s + " World"));
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assertEquals("Hello World", completableFuture.get());
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```
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The *thenCompose* method, together with *thenApply,* implements the basic building blocks of the monadic pattern. They closely relate to the *map* and *flatMap* methods of *Stream* and *Optional* classes, also available in Java 8.
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Both methods receive a function and apply it to the computation result, but the *thenCompose* (*flatMap*) method **receives a function that returns another object of the same type**. This functional structure allows composing the instances of these classes as building blocks.
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If we want to execute two independent *Futures* and do something with their results, we can use the *thenCombine* method that accepts a *Future* and a *Function* with two arguments to process both results:
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```java
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CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Hello")
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.thenCombine(CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(
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() -> " World"), (s1, s2) -> s1 + s2));
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assertEquals("Hello World", completableFuture.get());
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```
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A simpler case is when we want to do something with two *Futures*‘ results but don't need to pass any resulting value down a *Future* chain. The *thenAcceptBoth* method is there to help:
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```java
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CompletableFuture future = CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Hello")
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.thenAcceptBoth(CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> " World"),
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(s1, s2) -> System.out.println(s1 + s2));
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```
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## Difference Between *thenApply()* and *thenCompose()*
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In our previous sections, we've shown examples regarding *thenApply()* and *thenCompose()*. Both APIs help chain different *CompletableFuture* calls, but the usage of these two functions are different.
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### *thenApply()*
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**We can use this method to work with the result of the previous call.** However, a key point to remember is that the return type will be combined of all calls.
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So this method is useful when we want to transform the result of a *CompletableFuture *call:
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```java
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CompletableFuture<Integer> finalResult = compute().thenApply(s-> s + 1);
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```
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### *thenCompose()*
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The *thenCompose()* is similar to *thenApply()* in that both return a new CompletionStage. However, ***thenCompose()* uses the previous stage as the argument**. It will flatten and return a *Future* with the result directly, rather than a nested future as we observed in *thenApply():*
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```java
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CompletableFuture<Integer> computeAnother(Integer i){
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return CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> 10 + i);
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}
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CompletableFuture<Integer> finalResult = compute().thenCompose(this::computeAnother);
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```
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So if the idea is to chain *CompletableFuture* methods, then it’s better to use *thenCompose()*.
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Also, note that the difference between these two methods is analogous to [the difference between *map()* and *flatMap()*](https://www.baeldung.com/java-difference-map-and-flatmap)*.*
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## Running Multiple *Futures* in Parallel
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When we need to execute multiple *Futures* in parallel, we usually want to wait for all of them to execute and then process their combined results.
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The *CompletableFuture.allOf* static method allows to wait for the completion of all of the *Futures* provided as a var-arg:
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```java
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CompletableFuture<String> future1
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Hello");
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CompletableFuture<String> future2
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Beautiful");
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CompletableFuture<String> future3
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "World");
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CompletableFuture<Void> combinedFuture
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= CompletableFuture.allOf(future1, future2, future3);
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// ...
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combinedFuture.get();
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assertTrue(future1.isDone());
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assertTrue(future2.isDone());
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assertTrue(future3.isDone());
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```
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Notice that the return type of the *CompletableFuture.allOf()* is a *CompletableFuture<Void>*. The limitation of this method is that it does not return the combined results of all *Futures*. Instead, we have to get results from *Futures* manually. Fortunately, *CompletableFuture.join()* method and Java 8 Streams API makes it simple:
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```java
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String combined = Stream.of(future1, future2, future3)
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.map(CompletableFuture::join)
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.collect(Collectors.joining(" "));
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assertEquals("Hello Beautiful World", combined);
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```
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The *CompletableFuture.join()* method is similar to the *get* method, but it throws an unchecked exception in case the *Future* does not complete normally. This makes it possible to use it as a method reference in the *Stream.map()* method.
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## Handling Errors
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For error handling in a chain of asynchronous computation steps, we have to adapt the *throw/catch* idiom in a similar fashion.
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Instead of catching an exception in a syntactic block, the *CompletableFuture* class allows us to handle it in a special *handle* method. This method receives two parameters: a result of a computation (if it finished successfully) and the exception thrown (if some computation step did not complete normally).
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In the following example, we use the *handle* method to provide a default value when the asynchronous computation of a greeting was finished with an error because no name was provided:
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```java
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String name = null;
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// ...
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CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> {
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if (name == null) {
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throw new RuntimeException("Computation error!");
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}
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return "Hello, " + name;
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}).handle((s, t) -> s != null ? s : "Hello, Stranger!");
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assertEquals("Hello, Stranger!", completableFuture.get());
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```
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As an alternative scenario, suppose we want to manually complete the *Future* with a value, as in the first example, but also have the ability to complete it with an exception. The *completeExceptionally* method is intended for just that. The *completableFuture.get()* method in the following example throws an *ExecutionException* with a *RuntimeException* as its cause:
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```java
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CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture = new CompletableFuture<>();
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// ...
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completableFuture.completeExceptionally(
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new RuntimeException("Calculation failed!"));
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// ...
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completableFuture.get(); // ExecutionException
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```
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In the example above, we could have handled the exception with the *handle* method asynchronously, but with the *get* method, we can use the more typical approach of synchronous exception processing.
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## Async Methods
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Most methods of the fluent API in the *CompletableFuture* class have two additional variants with the *Async* postfix. These methods are usually intended for **running a corresponding execution step in another thread**.
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The methods without the *Async* postfix run the next execution stage using a calling thread. In contrast, the *Async* method without the *Executor* argument runs a step using the common *fork/join* pool implementation of *Executor* that is accessed with the *ForkJoinPool.commonPool()*, as long as [parallelism > 1](https://www.baeldung.com/java-when-to-use-parallel-stream#2-common-thread-pool). Finally, the *Async* method with an *Executor* argument runs a step using the passed *Executor*.
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Here's a modified example that processes the result of a computation with a *Function* instance. The only visible difference is the *thenApplyAsync* method, but under the hood, the application of a function is wrapped into a *ForkJoinTask* instance (for more information on the *fork/join* framework, see the article [“Guide to the Fork/Join Framework in Java”](https://www.baeldung.com/java-fork-join)). This allows us to parallelize our computation even more and use system resources more efficiently:
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```java
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CompletableFuture<String> completableFuture
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= CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> "Hello");
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CompletableFuture<String> future = completableFuture
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.thenApplyAsync(s -> s + " World");
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assertEquals("Hello World", future.get());
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```
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## JDK 9 *CompletableFuture* API
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Java 9 enhances the *CompletableFuture* API with the following changes:
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- New factory methods added
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- Support for delays and timeouts
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- Improved support for subclassing
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and new instance APIs:
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- *Executor defaultExecutor()*
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- *CompletableFuture<U> newIncompleteFuture()*
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- *CompletableFuture<T> copy()*
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- *CompletionStage<T> minimalCompletionStage()*
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- *CompletableFuture<T> completeAsync(Supplier<? extends T> supplier, Executor executor)*
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- *CompletableFuture<T> completeAsync(Supplier<? extends T> supplier)*
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- *CompletableFuture<T> orTimeout(long timeout, TimeUnit unit)*
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- *CompletableFuture<T> completeOnTimeout(T value, long timeout, TimeUnit unit)*
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We also now have a few static utility methods:
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- *Executor delayedExecutor(long delay, TimeUnit unit, Executor executor)*
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- *Executor delayedExecutor(long delay, TimeUnit unit)*
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- *<U> CompletionStage<U> completedStage(U value)*
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- *<U> CompletionStage<U> failedStage(Throwable ex)*
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- *<U> CompletableFuture<U> failedFuture(Throwable ex)*
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Finally, to address timeout, Java 9 has introduced two more new functions:
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- *orTimeout()*
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- *completeOnTimeout()*
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Here's the detailed article for further reading: [Java 9 CompletableFuture API Improvements](https://www.baeldung.com/java-9-completablefuture).
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## Conclusion
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In this article, we've described the methods and typical use cases of the *CompletableFuture* class.
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The source code for the article is available [over on GitHub](https://github.com/eugenp/tutorials/tree/master/core-java-modules/core-java-concurrency-simple).
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