How to Handle Timeouts in Network Communication in Java?
Last Updated :
24 Apr, 2025
In Java, Timeouts in Network Communication mean when the end user sends a request to the server through a network, the server takes a lot of time to process the request and send it the in form of a response. In real-time applications we need to handle this situation for end users we need to give one error message to explain this situation like server time out, unable to process the request, request time exceeding, and other error messages.
In this article, we will learn how to Handle Timeouts in Network Communication in Java.
Approaches to Handle Timeouts in Network Communication
For handling timeouts in network communication in Java we have two different approaches.
- Using Socket Timeout
- Using Asynchronous Communication with Timeout
Program to Handle Timeouts in Network Communication in Java
Below are the code implementations of the two approaches.
Approach 1: Using Socket Timeout
In this approach, we have provided communication through socket.
- The Socket is one of the classes in Java.
- It is used for communicating with servers.
Java
// Java program to handle Timeouts in Network
// Communication using Socket Timeout
import java.net.*;
// Driver Class
public class SocketTimeoutExample
{
// Main Function
public static void main(String[] args)
{
try {
// Create a new socket
Socket socket = new Socket();
// Define the address and port
SocketAddress address = new InetSocketAddress("example.com", 80);
// Define the timeout in milliseconds
int timeout = 5000;
// Connect the socket to the address with the defined timeout
socket.connect(address, timeout);
System.err.println("Connection Success");
// Close the socket
socket.close();
} catch (SocketTimeoutException e)
{
System.err.println("Connection timed out");
} catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Output:
If you get Server response with 5 seconds, then output as below:
Connection Success
Otherwise, the response gets with time limit then you will get output as below:
Connection timed out
Explanation of the above Program:
- First, we have created one Java Class and in the main method, we have defined Socket communication by using Socket class.
- Once we connect with given host, the host send response with in 5 seconds otherwise we get time out error message.
- Else, we will get Connection success message as an output.
Approach 2: Asynchronous Communication with Timeout
This is another approach for handling timeouts in network communication in Java. Here, we have used future and ExecutorService. The future returns the future object when it is started and The ExecutorService is used for tracking the requests means completed or not.
Java
// Java program to handle Timeouts in
// Network Communication using asynchronous
// Communication with Timeout
import java.net.*;
import java.util.concurrent.*;
// Driver Class
public class AsynchronousTimeoutExample {
// Main Function
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Create a new ExecutorService with a cached thread pool
ExecutorService executor = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
try {
// Submit a new task to the executor
Future<Void> future = executor.submit(() -> {
try {
// Create a new socket
Socket socket = new Socket();
// Define the address and port
SocketAddress address = new InetSocketAddress("example.com", 80);
// Define the timeout in milliseconds
int timeout = 5000;
// Connect the socket to the address with the defined timeout
socket.connect(address, timeout);
// Close the socket
socket.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
// Throw a new runtime exception with the caught exception
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
return null;
});
// Wait for the task to complete with a timeout of 5 seconds
future.get(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
} catch (TimeoutException e) {
System.err.println("Operation timed out");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
// Shut down the executor
executor.shutdown();
}
}
}