在《Java并发实践》一书中有一个很好的例子。作者(Joshua Bloch)解释了线程限制是实现线程安全的最简单方法之一，而ThreadLocal是维护线程限制的更正式的方法。最后，他还解释了人们如何滥用它作为全局变量。

我已经从提到的书中复制了文本，但代码3.10是缺失的，因为它不太重要，了解ThreadLocal应该在哪里使用。

Thread-local variables are often used to prevent sharing in designs based on mutable Singletons or global variables. For example, a single-threaded application might maintain a global database connection that is initialized at startup to avoid having to pass a Connection to every method. Since JDBC connections may not be thread-safe, a multithreaded application that uses a global connection without additional coordination is not thread-safe either. By using a ThreadLocal to store the JDBC connection, as in ConnectionHolder in Listing 3.10, each thread will have its own connection. ThreadLocal is widely used in implementing application frameworks. For example, J2EE containers associate a transaction context with an executing thread for the duration of an EJB call. This is easily implemented using a static Thread-Local holding the transaction context: when framework code needs to determine what transaction is currently running, it fetches the transaction context from this ThreadLocal. This is convenient in that it reduces the need to pass execution context information into every method, but couples any code that uses this mechanism to the framework. It is easy to abuse ThreadLocal by treating its thread confinement property as a license to use global variables or as a means of creating “hidden” method arguments. Like global variables, thread-local variables can detract from reusability and introduce hidden couplings among classes, and should therefore be used with care.

什么时候?

当一个对象不是线程安全的时候，为了避免影响可伸缩性的同步，给每个线程一个对象，并保持它的线程作用域，即ThreadLocal。最常用但不是线程安全的对象之一是数据库Connection和JMSConnection。

如何?

例如，Spring框架通过将这些连接对象保存在ThreadLocal变量中，在幕后大量使用ThreadLocal来管理事务。在高层，当事务启动时，它获得连接(并禁用自动提交)并将其保存在ThreadLocal中。在进一步的db调用中，它使用相同的连接与db通信。最后，它从ThreadLocal获取连接，提交(或回滚)事务并释放连接。

我认为log4j也使用ThreadLocal来维护MDC。

ThreadLocal will ensure accessing the mutable object by the multiple threads in the non synchronized method is synchronized, means making the mutable object to be immutable within the method. This is achieved by giving new instance of mutable object for each thread try accessing it. So It is local copy to the each thread. This is some hack on making instance variable in a method to be accessed like a local variable. As you aware method local variable is only available to the thread, one difference is; method local variables will not available to the thread once method execution is over where as mutable object shared with threadlocal will be available across multiple methods till we clean it up.

通过定义:

Java中的ThreadLocal类允许您创建这样的变量 只能在同一线程上读写。这样，即使是两个线程 正在执行相同的代码，并且该代码有一个对 变量ThreadLocal，那么两个线程不能看到彼此的线程 ThreadLocal变量。

java中的每个线程都包含ThreadLocalMap。 在哪里

Key = One ThreadLocal object shared across threads.
value = Mutable object which has to be used synchronously, this will be instantiated for each thread.

实现ThreadLocal:

现在为ThreadLocal创建一个包装器类，它将保存如下所示的可变对象(有或没有initialValue())。现在这个包装器的getter和setter将工作于threadlocal实例，而不是可变对象。

如果threadlocal的getter()在线程的threadlocalmap中没有找到任何值;然后它将调用initialValue()来获得它相对于线程的私有副本。

class SimpleDateFormatInstancePerThread {

    private static final ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat> dateFormatHolder = new ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat>() {

        @Override
        protected SimpleDateFormat initialValue() {
            SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd") {
                UUID id = UUID.randomUUID();
                @Override
                public String toString() {
                    return id.toString();
                };
            };
            System.out.println("Creating SimpleDateFormat instance " + dateFormat +" for Thread : " + Thread.currentThread().getName());
            return dateFormat;
        }
    };

    /*
     * Every time there is a call for DateFormat, ThreadLocal will return calling
     * Thread's copy of SimpleDateFormat
     */
    public static DateFormat getDateFormatter() {
        return dateFormatHolder.get();
    }

    public static void cleanup() {
        dateFormatHolder.remove();
    }
}

现在wrapper.getDateFormatter()将调用threadlocal.get()并检查currentThread。threadLocalMap包含这个(threadlocal)实例。 如果是，返回对应threadlocal实例的值(SimpleDateFormat) 否则使用这个threadlocal实例initialValue()添加映射。

在此可变类上实现线程安全;每个线程都使用自己的可变实例，但使用相同的ThreadLocal实例。意味着所有线程将共享相同的ThreadLocal实例作为key，但不同的SimpleDateFormat实例作为value。

https://github.com/skanagavelu/yt.tech/blob/master/src/ThreadLocalTest.java

Webapp服务器可能会保留一个线程池，并且在响应客户端之前应该删除ThreadLocal变量，因此当前线程可能会被下一个请求重用。

试试这个小例子，感受一下ThreadLocal变量:

public class Book implements Runnable {
    private static final ThreadLocal<List<String>> WORDS = ThreadLocal.withInitial(ArrayList::new);

    private final String bookName; // It is also the thread's name
    private final List<String> words;


    public Book(String bookName, List<String> words) {
        this.bookName = bookName;
        this.words = Collections.unmodifiableList(words);
    }

    public void run() {
        WORDS.get().addAll(words);
        System.out.printf("Result %s: '%s'.%n", bookName, String.join(", ", WORDS.get()));
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Thread t1 = new Thread(new Book("BookA", Arrays.asList("wordA1", "wordA2", "wordA3")));
        Thread t2 = new Thread(new Book("BookB", Arrays.asList("wordB1", "wordB2")));
        t1.start();
        t2.start();
    }
}

控制台输出，如果线程BookA先执行: 结果BookA: 'wordA1, wordA2, wordA3'。 结果BookB: 'wordB1, wordB2'。 控制台输出，如果先执行线程BookB: 结果BookB: 'wordB1, wordB2'。 结果BookA: 'wordA1, wordA2, wordA3'。

线程局部变量通常用于防止基于线程的设计中的共享 可变单例或全局变量。

在不使用连接池的情况下，它可以用于为每个线程建立单独的JDBC连接等场景。

private static ThreadLocal<Connection> connectionHolder
           = new ThreadLocal<Connection>() {
      public Connection initialValue() {
           return DriverManager.getConnection(DB_URL);
          }
     };

public static Connection getConnection() {
      return connectionHolder.get();
} 

当您调用getConnection时，它将返回与该线程关联的连接。对于其他属性(如dateformat、事务上下文等)，您不希望在线程之间共享，也可以这样做。

您也可以使用局部变量来实现相同的目的，但是这些资源通常会占用创建时间，因此您不希望在使用它们执行某些业务逻辑时一次又一次地创建它们。然而，ThreadLocal值存储在线程对象本身中，一旦线程被垃圾收集，这些值也就消失了。

这个链接很好地解释了ThreadLocal的用法。