What is the producer-consumer pattern and how can I implement it?

What is the producer-consumer pattern and how can I implement it?

The producer-consumer pattern is a design pattern that helps manage the communication between two processes. It involves a producer that generates data and a consumer that processes that data. You can implement it using various programming languages and tools.

Can you give me a simple example in Python?

Sure! Here's a basic example using the queue module in Python:

import threading
import queue
import time

# Create a queue to hold data
data_queue = queue.Queue()

# Producer function
def producer():
    for i in range(5):
        data_queue.put(i)
        print(f'Produced {i}')
        time.sleep(1)

# Consumer function
def consumer():
    while True:
        item = data_queue.get()
        if item is None:
            break
        print(f'Consumed {item}')
        data_queue.task_done()

# Create threads
producer_thread = threading.Thread(target=producer)
consumer_thread = threading.Thread(target=consumer)

# Start threads
producer_thread.start()
consumer_thread.start()

# Wait for the producer to finish
producer_thread.join()
# Stop the consumer
data_queue.put(None)
consumer_thread.join()

What are some common use cases for this pattern?

Common use cases include task scheduling, data processing pipelines, and managing asynchronous tasks in web servers.