Easiest way to implement shared integer counter in C++11 without mutexes:

Question

Suppose we have the following code which counts the number of times something occurs:

int i=0;
void f() {
   // do stuff  . . .
   if(something_happens) ++i;
}

int main() {
    std::vector<std::thread> threads;
    for(int j = 0; j< std::thread::hardware_concurrency(); ++j) {
        threads.push_back(std::thread(f));
    }

    std::for_each(threads.begin(), threads.end(), std::mem_fn(&std::thread_join));
    std::cout << "i = " << i << '\n';
}

As it stands there is a clear race condition on i. Using C++11, what is (1) the easiest method for eliminating this race condition, and (2) the fastest method?, preferably without using mutexes. Thanks.

Update: Using the comment to use atomics, I got a working program which compiles under the Intel Compiler, version 13:

#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#include <vector>
#include <atomic>
#include <algorithm>

std::atomic<unsigned long long> i = 0;

void f(int j) {
    if(j%2==0) {
        ++i;
    }  
}

int main() {
    std::cout << "Atomic i = " << i << "\n";
    int numThreads = 8; //std::thread::hardware_concurrency() not yet implemented by Intel
    std::vector<std::thread> threads;
    for(int k=0; k< numThreads; ++k) {
        threads.push_back(std::thread(f, k));
    }

    std::for_each(threads.begin(), threads.end(), std::mem_fn(&std::thread::join));
        std::cout << "Atomic i = " << i << "\n";
    }

Answer 1

You might want to look into atomic types. You can access them without a need for a lock/mutex.