As already said here synchronized block can use user-defined variable as lock object, when synchronized function uses only "this". And of course you can manipulate with areas of your function which should be synchronized. But everyone says that no difference between synchronized function and block which covers whole function using "this" as lock object. That is not true, difference is in byte code which will be generated in both situations. In case of synchronized block usage should be allocated local variable which holds reference to "this". And as result we will have a little bit larger size for function (not relevant if you have only few number of functions).

你可以在这里找到更详细的解释: http://www.artima.com/insidejvm/ed2/threadsynchP.html

通常在方法级别上使用锁是不礼貌的。为什么要通过锁定整个方法来锁定一段不能访问任何共享资源的代码呢?因为每个对象都有一个锁，所以可以创建虚拟对象来实现块级同步。 块级的效率更高，因为它不锁定整个方法。

这里有一些例子

方法级

class MethodLevel {

  //shared among threads
SharedResource x, y ;

public void synchronized method1() {
   //multiple threads can't access
}
public void synchronized method2() {
  //multiple threads can't access
}

 public void method3() {
  //not synchronized
  //multiple threads can access
 }
}

块级别

class BlockLevel {
  //shared among threads
  SharedResource x, y ;

  //dummy objects for locking
  Object xLock = new Object();
  Object yLock = new Object();

    public void method1() {
     synchronized(xLock){
    //access x here. thread safe
    }

    //do something here but don't use SharedResource x, y
    // because will not be thread-safe
     synchronized(xLock) {
       synchronized(yLock) {
      //access x,y here. thread safe
      }
     }

     //do something here but don't use SharedResource x, y
     //because will not be thread-safe
    }//end of method1
 }

(编辑)

对于像Vector和Hashtable这样的集合，当ArrayList或HashMap不同步时，它们是同步的，你需要设置synchronized关键字或调用Collections synchronized方法:

Map myMap = Collections.synchronizedMap (myMap); // single lock for the entire map
List myList = Collections.synchronizedList (myList); // single lock for the entire list

在同步方法的情况下，锁将在对象上获得。但是如果你使用同步块，你可以选择指定一个对象来获取锁。

例子:

    Class Example {
    String test = "abc";
    // lock will be acquired on String  test object.
    synchronized (test) {
        // do something
    }

   lock will be acquired on Example Object
   public synchronized void testMethod() {
     // do some thing
   } 

   }

在实际应用中，同步方法相对于同步块的优势在于它们更能抵抗白痴;因为您不能选择任意对象来锁定，所以您不能滥用synchronized方法语法来做一些愚蠢的事情，比如锁定字符串文字或锁定从线程下面更改的可变字段的内容。

另一方面，使用同步方法，您无法保护锁不被任何可以获得对象引用的线程获取。

因此，在方法上使用synchronized作为修饰符可以更好地保护你的奶牛免受伤害，而将synchronized块与私有final锁对象结合使用则可以更好地保护你自己的代码免受奶牛的伤害。

主要的区别是，如果你使用同步块，你可以锁定一个对象，而不是这个，这允许更灵活。

假设您有一个消息队列和多个消息生产者和消费者。我们不希望生产者相互干扰，但是消费者应该能够检索消息，而不必等待生产者。 我们只需要创建一个对象

Object writeLock = new Object();

从现在开始，每当制作人想要添加一条新信息时，我们就会锁定它:

synchronized(writeLock){
  // do something
}

因此，消费者可能仍会阅读，而生产者将被锁定。

As already said here synchronized block can use user-defined variable as lock object, when synchronized function uses only "this". And of course you can manipulate with areas of your function which should be synchronized. But everyone says that no difference between synchronized function and block which covers whole function using "this" as lock object. That is not true, difference is in byte code which will be generated in both situations. In case of synchronized block usage should be allocated local variable which holds reference to "this". And as result we will have a little bit larger size for function (not relevant if you have only few number of functions).

你可以在这里找到更详细的解释: http://www.artima.com/insidejvm/ed2/threadsynchP.html