虽然我在这里提到的答案中看到了许多很好的理论解释，但我在这里添加了一个实际的例子来解释:

1.

代码在不使用volatile的情况下运行

public class VisibilityDemonstration {

private static int sCount = 0;

public static void main(String[] args) {
    new Consumer().start();
    try {
        Thread.sleep(100);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        return;
    }
    new Producer().start();
}

static class Consumer extends Thread {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        int localValue = -1;
        while (true) {
            if (localValue != sCount) {
                System.out.println("Consumer: detected count change " + sCount);
                localValue = sCount;
            }
            if (sCount >= 5) {
                break;
            }
        }
        System.out.println("Consumer: terminating");
    }
}

static class Producer extends Thread {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        while (sCount < 5) {
            int localValue = sCount;
            localValue++;
            System.out.println("Producer: incrementing count to " + localValue);
            sCount = localValue;
            try {
                Thread.sleep(1000);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                return;
            }
        }
        System.out.println("Producer: terminating");
    }
}
}

在上面的代码中，有两个线程——生产者和消费者。

生产者线程在循环中迭代5次(睡眠时间为1000毫秒或1秒)。在每次迭代中，生产者线程将sCount变量的值增加1。因此，在所有迭代中，生产者将sCount的值从0更改为5

使用者线程处于一个常量循环中，每当sCount的值发生变化时，它就会打印，直到值达到5为止。

两个循环同时开始。因此，生产者和消费者都应该将sCount的值打印5次。

输出

Consumer: detected count change 0
Producer: incrementing count to 1
Producer: incrementing count to 2
Producer: incrementing count to 3
Producer: incrementing count to 4
Producer: incrementing count to 5
Producer: terminating

分析

In the above program, when the producer thread updates the value of sCount, it does update the value of the variable in the main memory(memory from where every thread is going to initially read the value of variable). But the consumer thread reads the value of sCount only the first time from this main memory and then caches the value of that variable inside its own memory. So, even if the value of original sCount in main memory has been updated by the producer thread, the consumer thread is reading from its cached value which is not updated. This is called VISIBILITY PROBLEM .

2.

代码使用volatile运行

在上面的代码中，用下面的代码替换声明了sCount的代码行:

private volatile  static int sCount = 0;

输出

Consumer: detected count change 0
Producer: incrementing count to 1
Consumer: detected count change 1
Producer: incrementing count to 2
Consumer: detected count change 2
Producer: incrementing count to 3
Consumer: detected count change 3
Producer: incrementing count to 4
Consumer: detected count change 4
Producer: incrementing count to 5
Consumer: detected count change 5
Consumer: terminating
Producer: terminating

分析

当我们声明一个变量为volatile时，这意味着所有对这个变量的读写操作都将直接进入主存。这些变量的值永远不会被缓存。

由于sCount变量的值永远不会被任何线程缓存，消费者总是从主内存中读取sCount的原始值(在那里由生产者线程更新)。因此，在这种情况下，输出是正确的，两个线程都打印了5次不同的sCount值。

通过这种方式，volatile关键字解决了可见性问题。

假设一个线程修改了一个共享变量的值，如果你没有对该变量使用volatile修饰符的话。当其他线程想要读取这个变量的值时，它们看不到更新后的值，因为它们是从CPU的缓存而不是RAM内存中读取变量的值。这个问题也被称为能见度问题。

通过将共享变量声明为volatile，所有对计数器变量的写入都将立即写入主存。同样，所有对counter变量的读取都将直接从主存中读取。

public class SharedObject {
    public volatile int sharedVariable = 0;
}

对于非易失性变量，不能保证Java虚拟机(JVM)何时将数据从主存读取到CPU缓存，或何时将数据从CPU缓存写入主存。这可能会导致几个问题，我将在下面的部分中解释这些问题。

例子:

想象这样一种情况，两个或多个线程可以访问一个共享对象，该对象包含一个声明如下的计数器变量:

public class SharedObject {
    public int counter = 0;
}

再想象一下，只有线程1增加计数器变量，但是线程1和线程2都可以不时地读取计数器变量。

如果计数器变量没有被声明为volatile，则不能保证计数器变量的值何时从CPU缓存写入主存。这意味着CPU缓存中的计数器变量值可能与主存中的不相同。这种情况如下所示:

线程看不到一个变量的最新值，因为它还没有被另一个线程写回主存，这个问题被称为“可见性”问题。一个线程的更新对其他线程是不可见的。

挥发性(vɒlətʌɪl):在常温下容易挥发

关于volatile的重要一点:

Synchronization in Java is possible by using Java keywords synchronized and volatile and locks. In Java, we can not have synchronized variable. Using synchronized keyword with a variable is illegal and will result in compilation error. Instead of using the synchronized variable in Java, you can use the java volatile variable, which will instruct JVM threads to read the value of volatile variable from main memory and don’t cache it locally. If a variable is not shared between multiple threads then there is no need to use the volatile keyword.

源

volatile用法示例:

public class Singleton {
    private static volatile Singleton _instance; // volatile variable
    public static Singleton getInstance() {
        if (_instance == null) {
            synchronized (Singleton.class) {
                if (_instance == null)
                    _instance = new Singleton();
            }
        }
        return _instance;
    }
}

我们在第一个请求到来时惰性地创建实例。

如果我们不使_instance变量为volatile，那么创建Singleton实例的线程就不能与其他线程通信。因此，如果线程A正在创建单例实例，在创建后，CPU损坏等，所有其他线程将无法看到_instance的值不为空，他们将认为它仍然被分配为空。

为什么会发生这种情况?因为读线程不做任何锁，直到写线程从同步块中出来，内存不会被同步，_instance的值也不会在主存中更新。使用Java中的Volatile关键字，这是由Java本身处理的，这样的更新将对所有读取线程可见。

结论:volatile关键字也用于线程之间的内存内容通信。

without volatile的用法示例:

public class Singleton {    
    private static Singleton _instance;   //without volatile variable
    public static Singleton getInstance() {   
        if (_instance == null) {  
            synchronized(Singleton.class) {  
                if (_instance == null) 
                    _instance = new Singleton(); 
            } 
        }
        return _instance;  
    }
}

The code above is not thread-safe. Although it checks the value of instance once again within the synchronized block (for performance reasons), the JIT compiler can rearrange the bytecode in a way that the reference to the instance is set before the constructor has finished its execution. This means the method getInstance() returns an object that may not have been initialized completely. To make the code thread-safe, the keyword volatile can be used since Java 5 for the instance variable. Variables that are marked as volatile get only visible to other threads once the constructor of the object has finished its execution completely. Source

Java中不稳定的用法:

快速失败迭代器通常使用list对象上的volatile计数器实现。

当列表更新时，计数器会递增。 创建Iterator时，计数器的当前值嵌入到Iterator对象中。 当执行Iterator操作时，该方法比较两个计数器值，如果不相同则抛出ConcurrentModificationException异常。

故障安全迭代器的实现通常是轻量级的。它们通常依赖于特定列表实现的数据结构的属性。没有一般的模式。

是的，我经常使用它——它对多线程代码非常有用。你指的那篇文章很好。不过有两件重要的事情要记住:

You should only use volatile if you completely understand what it does and how it differs to synchronized. In many situations volatile appears, on the surface, to be a simpler more performant alternative to synchronized, when often a better understanding of volatile would make clear that synchronized is the only option that would work. volatile doesn't actually work in a lot of older JVMs, although synchronized does. I remember seeing a document that referenced the various levels of support in different JVMs but unfortunately I can't find it now. Definitely look into it if you're using Java pre 1.5 or if you don't have control over the JVMs that your program will be running on.

Volatile变量基本上用于主共享缓存线上的即时更新(刷新)，以便立即将更改反映到所有工作线程。

The volatile key when used with a variable, will make sure that threads reading this variable will see the same value . Now if you have multiple threads reading and writing to a variable, making the variable volatile will not be enough and data will be corrupted . Image threads have read the same value but each one has done some chages (say incremented a counter) , when writing back to the memory, data integrity is violated . That is why it is necessary to make the varible synchronized (diffrent ways are possible)

如果修改是由一个线程完成的，而其他线程只需要读取这个值，则volatile将是合适的。