DelayQueue poll() method in Java with Examples Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025 Summarize Comments Improve Suggest changes Share Like Article Like Report The poll() method of DelayQueue is used to retrieve head of the DelayQueue. This method also removes the head from the DelayQueue. Thus when poll method is called, DelayQueue size is reduced by one.Syntax: public E poll () Parameters: This method does not accept any parameter.Returns: This method returns head of the DelayQueue and also removes it from this DelayQueue.Exception: Null Pointer Exception: if head is not present, this function will return null.Below program to illustrate DelayQueue poll() in Java:Example: Java // Java Program Demonstrate DelayQueue poll() method import java.util.concurrent.*; import java.util.*; // The DelayObject for DelayQueue // It must implement Delayed and // its getDelay() and compareTo() method class DelayObject implements Delayed { private String name; private long time; // Constructor of DelayObject public DelayObject(String name, long delayTime) { this.name = name; this.time = System.currentTimeMillis() + delayTime; } // Implementing getDelay() method of Delayed @Override public long getDelay(TimeUnit unit) { long diff = time - System.currentTimeMillis(); return unit.convert(diff, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS); } // Implementing compareTo() method of Delayed @Override public int compareTo(Delayed obj) { if (this.time < ((DelayObject)obj).time) { return -1; } if (this.time > ((DelayObject)obj).time) { return 1; } return 0; } // Implementing toString() method of Delayed @Override public String toString() { return "\n{" + " " + name + ", time=" + time + "}"; } } // Driver Class public class GFG { public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException { // create object of DelayQueue // using DelayQueue() constructor BlockingQueue<DelayObject> DQ = new DelayQueue<DelayObject>(); // Add numbers to end of DelayQueue // using add() method DQ.add(new DelayObject("A", 1)); DQ.add(new DelayObject("B", 2)); DQ.add(new DelayObject("C", 3)); DQ.add(new DelayObject("D", 4)); // Print delayqueue System.out.println("Original DelayQueue: " + DQ + "\n"); // Print size of original DelayQueue System.out.println("Original DelayQueue size: " + DQ.size() + "\n"); // poll() method for returning head of the DelayQueue System.out.println("Head of the DelayQueue: " + DQ.poll()); // print DelayQueue size after poll method System.out.println("\nAfter poll() method, DelayQueue size: " + DQ.size()); } } Output: Original DelayQueue: [ { A, time=1545817370442}, { B, time=1545817370443}, { C, time=1545817370444}, { D, time=1545817370445}] Original DelayQueue size: 4 Head of the DelayQueue: { A, time=1545817370442} After poll() method, DelayQueue size: 3 Example: Java // Java Program Demonstrate DelayQueue poll() method import java.util.concurrent.*; import java.util.*; // The DelayObject for DelayQueue // It must implement Delayed and // its getDelay() and compareTo() method class DelayObject implements Delayed { private String name; private long time; // Constructor of DelayObject public DelayObject(String name, long delayTime) { this.name = name; this.time = System.currentTimeMillis() + delayTime; } // Implementing getDelay() method of Delayed @Override public long getDelay(TimeUnit unit) { long diff = time - System.currentTimeMillis(); return unit.convert(diff, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS); } // Implementing compareTo() method of Delayed @Override public int compareTo(Delayed obj) { if (this.time < ((DelayObject)obj).time) { return -1; } if (this.time > ((DelayObject)obj).time) { return 1; } return 0; } // Implementing toString() method of Delayed @Override public String toString() { return "\n{" + " " + name + ", time=" + time + "}"; } } // Driver Class public class GFG { public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException { // create object of DelayQueue // using DelayQueue() constructor BlockingQueue<DelayObject> DQ = new DelayQueue<DelayObject>(); // Print size of original DelayQueue System.out.println("Original DelayQueue size: " + DQ.size() + "\n"); // poll() method for returning head of the DelayQueue System.out.println("Head of the DelayQueue: " + DQ.poll()); } } Output: Original DelayQueue size: 0 Head of the DelayQueue: null Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article DelayQueue offer() method in Java with Examples P ProgrammerAnvesh Follow Improve Article Tags : Java Java-Collections Java - util package Java-Functions java-DelayQueue +1 More Practice Tags : JavaJava-Collections Similar Reads DelayQueue put() method in Java with Examples The put(E ele) method of DelayQueue class in Java is used to inserts a given element into the delay queue container. Hetre, E is the type of element maintained by this DelayQueue container. Syntax: public void put(E ele) Parameters: This method accepts only one parameter ele. It is the element which 2 min read DelayQueue peek() method in Java with Examples The peek() method of DelayQueue is used to retrieve head of the DelayQueue, but does not remove it, as in case of poll() method where head is removed from the DelayQueue. Syntax: public E peek () Parameters: This method does not accept any parameter. Returns: This method returns the head of the Dela 3 min read DelayQueue offer() method in Java with Examples The offer() method of DelayQueue is used to insert specified element in the delay queue. It acts similar to add() method of DelayQueue.Syntax: public boolean offer (E e) Parameters: DelayQueue accepts only those elements that belong to a class of type Delayed. So, this element E should be of type De 2 min read DelayQueue take() method in Java with Examples The take() method of DelayQueue is used to retrieve head of the DelayQueue and also removes it. Thus, the size of the DelayQueue is reduced. This function waits if an element with expired delay is available on this queue. Syntax: public E take () Parameters: This method accepts no parameters.Return 2 min read DelayQueue size() method in Java with Examples The size() method of DelayQueue class in Java is used to return the number of elements present in the given queue. If the number of elements is greater than Integer.MAX_VALUE then Integer.MAX_VALUE is returned as the size of this DelayQueue.Syntax: public int size() Parameters: It does not takes in 1 min read DelayQueue add() method in Java with Examples The add(E ele) method of DelayQueue class in Java is used to insert the given element into the delay queue and returns true if the element has been successfully inserted. Here, E refers to the type of elements maintained by this DelayQueue collection.Syntax: public boolean add(E ele) Parameters: Thi 2 min read Like