Using ExecutorService class from java.util.concurrent package

Question

Dear java programmers,
I have a question regarding the ExecutorService class from java.util.concurrent package.
I want to parse hundreds of files and for this purpose I'm implementing a thread pool. The way I use the ExecutorService class is summarized below:
ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);
        for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++){
            System.out.println("Parsing file No "+i);
            executor.submit(new Dock(i));
        executor.shutdown();
        try {
            executor.awaitTermination(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        executor.shutdownNow();However, the code snippet above creates all the 1000 threads (Dock objects) at once and loads them to the executor, and thus I'm worrying about memory leak. I haven't tested it on 1000 files yet but just on 50 small ones, and even if the program prints out "Parsing file No "+i 50 times at once, it executes normally the threads in the background.
I guess the write way would be to keep the number of active/idle threads in the executor constant (lets say 20 if the thread pool's size is 10) and submit a new one whenever a thread has been finished or terminated. But for this to happen the program should be notified someway whenever a thread is done. Can anybody help me do that?
thanks in advance,
Tom

Answer 1

Ok I found a feasible solution myself although I'm not sure if this is the optimum.
Here's what I did:
        ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);
        Future<String> future0, future1, future2, future3, future4, future5, future6, future7, future8, future9;
        Future[] futureArray = {future0 = null, future1 = null, future2 = null, future3 = null, future4 = null, future5 = null,
        future6 = null, future7 = null, future8 = null, future9 = null};
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++){
            futureArray[i] = executor.submit(new Dock(i));
        }I created the ExecutorService object which encapsulates the thread pool and then created 10 Future objects (java.util.concurrent.Future) and added them into an Array.
For java.util.concurrent.Future and Callable Interface usage refer to:
[http://www.swingwiki.org/best:use_worker_thread_for_long_operations]
[http://www.particle.kth.se/~lindsey/JavaCourse/Book/Part1/Java/Chapter10/concurrencyTools.html]
I used a Future[] Array to make the code neater. So after that I submitted -and in this way filled up- the first 10 threads to the thread pool.
        int i = 9;
        while (i < 1000){
            for (int j = 0; j < 10; j++){
                if (futureArray[j].isDone() && i < 999){
                    try{
                        i++;
                        futureArray[j] = executor.submit(new Dock(i));
                    } catch (ExecutionException ex) {
                        ex.printStackTrace();
                    } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                        ex.printStackTrace();
            try {
                Thread.sleep(100); // wait a while
            } catch(InterruptedException iex) { /* ignore */ }
        executor.shutdown();
        try {
            executor.awaitTermination(60, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        executor.shutdownNow();
    }Each of the future[0-9] objects represents a thread in the thread pool. So essentially I'm check which of these 10 threads has been finished (using the java.util.concurrent.Future.isDone() method) and if yes I replenish that empty future[0-9] object with a new one.