同步方法可以使用反射API进行检查。这对于测试某些契约很有用，比如模型中的所有方法都是同步的。

下面的代码段打印哈希表的所有同步方法:

for (Method m : Hashtable.class.getMethods()) {
        if (Modifier.isSynchronized(m.getModifiers())) {
            System.out.println(m);
        }
}

唯一的区别是:同步块允许颗粒状锁定，不像同步方法

基本上同步块或方法被用来编写线程安全的代码，以避免内存不一致的错误。

这个问题很老了，在过去的7年里，很多事情都发生了变化。 为了线程安全，引入了新的编程结构。

您可以通过使用高级并发API而不是同步块来实现线程安全。该文档页提供了实现线程安全的良好编程结构。

锁对象支持简化许多并发应用程序的锁定习惯用法。

executor为启动和管理线程定义了高级API。concurrent提供的执行器实现提供了适合大型应用程序的线程池管理。

并发集合使管理大型数据集合变得更容易，并且可以大大减少同步的需要。

原子变量具有最小化同步和帮助避免内存一致性错误的特性。

ThreadLocalRandom(在JDK 7中)提供了从多个线程有效生成伪随机数的功能。

更好的synchronized替代品是ReentrantLock，它使用Lock API

一个可重入互斥锁，其基本行为和语义与使用同步方法和语句访问的隐式监视锁相同，但具有扩展功能。

锁的例子:

class X {
   private final ReentrantLock lock = new ReentrantLock();
   // ...

   public void m() {
     lock.lock();  // block until condition holds
     try {
       // ... method body
     } finally {
       lock.unlock()
     }
   }
 }

其他编程结构也可以参考java.util.concurrent和java.util.concurrent.atomic包。

参考这个相关的问题:

同步vs锁定

同步的方法

同步方法有两个效果。 首先，当一个线程正在为一个对象执行同步方法时，所有为同一对象调用同步方法的其他线程将阻塞(暂停执行)，直到第一个线程处理完该对象。

其次，当同步方法退出时，它自动与同一对象的同步方法的任何后续调用建立happens-before关系。这保证了对对象状态的更改对于所有线程都是可见的。

注意，构造函数不能同步——在构造函数中使用synchronized关键字是一个语法错误。同步构造函数没有意义，因为只有创建对象的线程才能在构造对象时访问它。

同步语句

与同步方法不同，同步语句必须指定提供内在锁的对象:大多数情况下，我使用它来同步对列表或映射的访问，但我不想阻塞对对象的所有方法的访问。

Q:内在锁和同步 同步是围绕一个称为内在锁或监视器锁的内部实体构建的。(API规范通常将此实体简单地称为“监视器”)内在锁在同步的两个方面都发挥作用:强制独占访问对象的状态，并建立对可见性至关重要的happens-before关系。

Every object has an intrinsic lock associated with it. By convention, a thread that needs exclusive and consistent access to an object's fields has to acquire the object's intrinsic lock before accessing them, and then release the intrinsic lock when it's done with them. A thread is said to own the intrinsic lock between the time it has acquired the lock and released the lock. As long as a thread owns an intrinsic lock, no other thread can acquire the same lock. The other thread will block when it attempts to acquire the lock.

package test;

public class SynchTest implements Runnable {  
    private int c = 0;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new SynchTest().test();
    }

    public void test() {
        // Create the object with the run() method
        Runnable runnable = new SynchTest();
        Runnable runnable2 = new SynchTest();
        // Create the thread supplying it with the runnable object
        Thread thread = new Thread(runnable,"thread-1");
        Thread thread2 = new Thread(runnable,"thread-2");
//      Here the key point is passing same object, if you pass runnable2 for thread2,
//      then its not applicable for synchronization test and that wont give expected
//      output Synchronization method means "it is not possible for two invocations
//      of synchronized methods on the same object to interleave"

        // Start the thread
        thread.start();
        thread2.start();
    }

    public synchronized  void increment() {
        System.out.println("Begin thread " + Thread.currentThread().getName());
        System.out.println(this.hashCode() + "Value of C = " + c);
//      If we uncomment this for synchronized block, then the result would be different
//      synchronized(this) {
            for (int i = 0; i < 9999999; i++) {
                c += i;
            }
//      }
        System.out.println("End thread " + Thread.currentThread().getName());
    }

//    public synchronized void decrement() {
//        System.out.println("Decrement " + Thread.currentThread().getName());
//    }

    public int value() {
        return c;
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
        this.increment();
    }
}

用同步方法，块和不同步交叉检查不同的输出。

Synchronized方法用于锁定所有对象 同步块用于锁定特定对象

In general these are mostly the same other than being explicit about the object's monitor that's being used vs the implicit this object. One downside of synchronized methods that I think is sometimes overlooked is that in using the "this" reference to synchronize on you are leaving open the possibility of external objects locking on the same object. That can be a very subtle bug if you run into it. Synchronizing on an internal explicit Object or other existing field can avoid this issue, completely encapsulating the synchronization.

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