How to use threadlocal for string variables and store different run time values durinng parallel class execution? I am facing multiple issues

Question

ISSUE1: I have one variable 'name' which will have some runtime value and i am using this value in classes accross packages and also i can't return this value in method because i am already returning boolean value.This variable contains same value, it does not change in each class. expected: it should contain different values for different classes execution and should not override

I tried below:

public static commonClass {
protected static ThreadLocal<String> stringThreadLocal=new ThreadLocal<>();
public static String name=null;

public static boolean getName()
{
//---some code here---

name = driver.findElement(By.id(element)).getText()
stringThreadLocal.set(tempname);
name=getString();
//---- some code here----
return flag;
}

public static String getString(){

return stringThreadLocal.get();

}
}

Test Class in which i need to use it in @beforeclass method:

public class Class1{

String searchName = null;

@BeforeClass(alwaysRun = true)
@Parameters("browser")
public void verifyConnectJourneyBuilderUI(String browser) throws Exception {
flag=commonClass.getName();
assertEquals(flag, true);       
System.out.println("created with name:"+ commonClass.name);
searchName= commonClass.getString();  
}
}

In every class execution a new name gets generated but sometimes all threads take the same name and i get same value in 'name' as well as 'searchName' variable.

I referred similar issue at (How to store runtime variables in parallel execution selenium java ?) but could not get proper colution. Can someone suggest something?

ISSUE2: Sometimes TC fails because one thread can't find 'name' for a class. I am assuming that if TCs in one class are executed and one thread becomes free then both threads will work on another class and both will have different values, but since I am deleting the element which contains in 'name' in @afterclass that one element is deleted in @afterclass of one class then it won't find it for the next class TCs. Is my understanding correct?

Answer 1

I would never recommend using ThreadLocal in new code. Use it when you have old, single-threaded code that uses static variables, and you need to port the old code into a multi-threaded environment. If you replace the static Foobar variables with static final ThreadLocal<Foobar> variables, that's an easy way to let several threads in the program use the old code so long as each thread uses it in the old single-thread-like way.

I can't return this value in method because i am already returning boolean value.

That's what composite types are for. Why not do something like this instead?

public static commonClass {

    public class Name {
        public final String nameAsString;
        public final boolean flag;
        public Name(String nameAsString, boolean flag) {
            this.nameAsString = nameAsString;
            this.flag = flag;
        }
    }

    public static Name getName(){
    {
        //---some code here---
        String nameAsString = driver.findElement(By.id(element)).getText()
        //---- some code here----
        return new Name(nameAsString, flag);
    }
}

---

I am little confused, you have mentioned class inside a class, Are you suggesting to create a separate class 'Name'? beacuse i tried this but getting syntax error.

OK, My example (above) is a bit messed up. I just assumed that your code was Java, and that you were able to compile and run it. I changed it a bit to show my idea, but I did it without thinking too hard. Maybe I was half asleep. I don't know.

Anyway, here is a little Java program that you can actually compile and run. It illustrates the idea that I was talking about, which is, to return multiple values by using a POD (Plain-Old Data) class that is specialized just for that purpose. Of course, you may have to translate it some in order to make it work in whatever language you are using.

import java.util.Formatter;

public class CommonClass {

    public class Name {
        public final String nameAsString;
        public final boolean flag;
        public Name(String nameAsString, boolean flag) {
            this.nameAsString = nameAsString;
            this.flag = flag;
        }
    }

    public Name getName(){
        return new Name("foobar", false);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        CommonClass cc = new CommonClass();
        Formatter stdout = new Formatter(System.out);

        CommonClass.Name name = cc.getName();
        stdout.format("name=%s, flag=%b\n", name.nameAsString, name.flag);
    }
}