Particular Thread Count - java

I want to know how many active threads are there for a particular Thread class.
Lets say I have a class T which extends thread. In some other class (Ex: Demo) , I want to get the thread count for the T class Thread. I do know Thread.activeCount() method but it will get the count for a thread group. It does not server my need here. Lets say I have T1 and T2 classes which extends thread and In the Demo class I want to get How many T2 active threads are there.
How should I achieve this? Any Ideas??
PS: I don't have source code for the Class T1 and T2.
Thanks for the help.

You can use Thread.enumerate():
public int countThreadsOfClass(Class<? extends Thread> clazz) {
Thread[] tarray = new Thread[Thread.activeCount()];
Thread.enumerate(tarray);
int count = 0;
for(Thread t : tarray) {
if(clazz.isInstance(t))
count++;
}
return count;
}

Your Thread (or Runnable) subclass can maintain a static active count. Increment when run() starts, decrement when run() ends (in a finally block).
Make sure the increment/decrement is done in a multithread secure way.

You could implement ThreadFactory to construct the custom Thread classes and supply a ThreadGroup instance to get the counts from. By using ThreadFactory, each instance could contain its own ThreadGroup, making counts accessible based on the factory used.

Try to use ThreadPoolExecutor.
You can extend the ThreadPoolExecutor and counts the number of threads by calling getActiveCount().
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/concurrent/ThreadPoolExecutor.html

private static int getThreadCount(){
int runningThread = 0;
for (Thread t : Thread.getAllStackTraces().keySet()) if (t.getState()==Thread.State.RUNNABLE && t instanceof YourThreadClassName ) runningThread++;
System.out.println("Active threads : "+runningThread);
return runningThread;
}
Justreplace YourThreadClassName with your class that is extended by Thread.

Related

In which cases we need to synchronize a method?

Let's say I have the following code in Java
public class SynchronizedCounter {
private int c = 0;
public synchronized void increment() {
c++;
}
}
And I create two threads T1 and T2
Thread T1 = new Thread(c1);
Thread T2 = new Thread(c2);
Where c1 and c2 are two different instances of the class SynchronizedCounter.
It is really needed to synchronize the method increment? Because I know that when we use a synchronized method, the thread hold a lock on the object, in this way other threads cannot acquire the lock on the same object, but threads "associated" with other objects can execute that method without problems. Now, because I have only one thread associated with the object c1, it is anyway needed to use the synchronized method? Also if no other threads associated with the same object exist?
In your specific example, synchronized is not needed because each thread has its own instance of the class, so there is no data "sharing" between them.
If you change your example to:
Thread T1 = new Thread(c);
Thread T2 = new Thread(c);
Then you need to synchronize the method because the ++ operation is not atomic and the instance is shared between threads.
The bottom line is that your class is not thread safe without synchronized. If you never use a single instance across threads it doesn't matter. There are plenty of legitimate use cases for classes which are not thread safe. But as soon as you start sharing them between threads all bets are off (i.e. vicious bugs may appear randomly).
Given code/example does not need synchronization since it is using two distinct instances (and so, variables). But if you have one instance shared between two or more threads, synchronization is needed, despite comments stating otherwise.
Actually it is very simple to create a program to show that behavior:
removed synchronized
added code to call the method from two threads
public class SynchronizedCounter {
private int c = 0;
public void increment() {
c++;
}
public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
var counter = new SynchronizedCounter();
var t1 = create(100_000, counter);
var t2 = create(100_000, counter);
t1.start();
t2.start();
// wait termination of both threads
t1.join();
t2.join();
System.out.println(counter.c);
}
private static Thread create(int count, SynchronizedCounter counter) {
return new Thread(() -> {
for (var i = 0; i < count; i++) {
counter.increment();
}
System.out.println(counter.c);
});
}
}
Eventually (often?) this will result in weird numbers like:
C:\TMP>java SynchronizedCounter.java
122948
136644
136644
add synchronized and output should always end with 200000:
C:\TMP>java SynchronizedCounter.java
170134
200000
200000
Apparently posted code is not complete: the incremented variable is private and there is no method to retrieve the incremented value. impossible to really know if the method must be synchronized or not.

Finding the Names of active threads inside a threadpool : ExecutorService in java

So I am running an executor service and I would like to know the Names or the threadIDs of all the currently active/idle threads.
ExecutorService service = Executors.newCachedThreadPool(ThreadFactory threadFactory)
I do not need to know the count, but the actual names/IDs of all the active threads in my executor service. I need to identify the threads in any manner because I plan on implementing my own ThreadFactory with an appropriate naming convention.
For example, if my active threads are T0,T1,T3, my threadfactory would name the next thread as T2. But I can't find a way to get information about the active Threads.
How can I do that?
PS : Any other methods would also be appreciated. For example, lets say I am fine with having threads with names from T0 to T50. I just want my current threadfactory to assign any name from T0 to T50 such that a thread with the same name is not currently active or idle.
I was so free to create you a sample, of something I would've done. I couldn't really test it though:
public class CachingThreadFactory implements ThreadFactory{
// amount of active threads at max
private static final int THREAD_POOL_MAX_SIZE = 8;
// interval in milliseconds of the clean up task
private static final int CLEAN_UP_INTERVAL = 2000;
// the actual cache
private final Thread[] cachedThreads = new Thread[THREAD_POOL_MAX_SIZE];
// clean up task definition
{
new Timer().scheduleAtFixedRate(new CleanUpTask(), 0, CLEAN_UP_INTERVAL);
}
#Override
public synchronized Thread newThread(Runnable r){
for(int i = 0; i < cachedThreads.length; i++){
if(cachedThreads[i] == null){
return cachedThreads[i] = new Thread(r, "T" + i);
}
}
return null;
}
private final class CleanUpTask extends TimerTask{
#Override
public void run(){
synchronized(CachingThreadFactory.this){
for(int i = 0; i < cachedThreads.length; i++){
final Thread thread = cachedThreads[i];
if(thread != null && !thread.isAlive()){
cachedThreads[i] = null; // unset
}
}
}
}
}
}
This Factory caches every Thread it creates in an array. Then it runs a cleanUpTask asynchronly which checks if the threads in the array (if any) are still alive. If not they are removed.
The newThread method iterates through the cache, to find an index which is not yet taken, and then uses that index to create the name of that Thread. If no place is free it just returns null.
This class is probably thread safe. But I haven't really tested it. The synchronized-statements should prevent the interference between the cleanUp-Task and the newThread method. But any other action may disturb the whole thing.
call instead
Executors.newCachedThreadPool(ThreadFactory threadFactory)
and pass your implementation of ThreadFactory. There you can manage thread names at thread creation time.
Connect to your running program via jconsole or jvisual vm. It will give you all the running threads and their names.

Creating and naming multiple, simultaneous threads with a for loop

Is there a way to create multiple threads that run simultaneously with a for loop? Consider this example:
for(int i = 1; i<=36; i++) {
if(new Random().nextInt(2)==0){
ActionThread nr = new ActionThread();
}
}
I don't want the threads to be killed after completion of the if statement. The end of each thread is randomly determined in the ActionThread class itself. Also, how do I name the threads automatically? For example, instead of nr, the first thread should be named nr1, the second nr2, the third nr3, and so on.
I'm assuming that ActionThread is some custom class that you have created that extends Thread.
I don't want the threads to be killed after completion of the if statement.
They won't be. However, it doesn't look like you have started them yet. Read the javadocs for Thread. Read the material at the top, then look at the start() and run() methods.
If you don't start a thread ... nothing happens.
Also, if you want some other part of your application to be able to "do things" to the threads once they have been created, you should replace the nr local variable with a data structure that the the rest of the application can get at; e.g. a list or an array.
(It is also possible to find extant threads via the ThreadGroup tree, but it is complicated.)
Also, how do I name the threads automatically?
Call Thread.setName(), or pass the thread name to the (relevant) Thread constructor. For example:
nr.setName("thr" + i);
Or you could even make your ActionThread set its own name in the constructor.
I should also point out that is is generally considered to be a bad idea to create subclasses of Thread. It is better to put your thread logic into a custom Runnable class, then create and pass a Runnable instance as a Thread construct argument. Like this:
public class MyRunnable implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
// thread logic goes here
}
}
Thread th = new Thread(new MyRunnable());
th.start();
If you want to pass parameters to the thread logic, add a constructor to your runnable class with some arguments, and provide them when you instantiate the runnable.
Why do it this way? Because it allows you to easily change your code to use a thread loop or executor or some such.
public static void main(String[] a) {
List<ActionThread> threads = new ArrayList<>();
for (int i = 1; i <= 36; i++) {
if (new Random().nextInt(2) == 0) { // no idea why you have put this
// but seems unecessary
ActionThread thread = new ActionThread();
threads.add(thread);
thread.start();
}
}
}
class ActionThread extends Thread {
#Override
public void run() {
// Write what to do in Thread here
}
}
Once the list of ActionThread is there you have handle to all the Threads that you have created. using threads.get(index). From question its appears that by name you meant handle to Thread instance
For automatic naming, may be use static field (counter) in ActionThread and increment him in the constructor, before generate thread name.
class ActionThread extend Thread {
private static int id = 0;
ActionThread() {
setName(String.format("n%d", ++id);
}
}

Observer pattern with threads

I want to run several threads and join them at the end of my main method, so I can know when they have finished and process some info.
I don't want to put my threads in an array and do a join() one by one as join is a blocking method and I stay would waiting in the main thread for some threads still running, while other threads may have already finished, without having a possibility of knowing.
I have thought on the possibility of implementing an observer pattern for my threads: An interface with a update() method, an abstract class extending from thread (or implementing runnable) with set and get methods for the listeners and a class starting all my threads and waiting them to finish.
If my understanding is right, an observer would not block in a specific join() for a thread. Instead it will wait somehow until an update() method is called by a thread to perform an action. In this case, the update() should be called right after the thread finishes.
I'm clueless on how to implement this. I've tried with similar models, but I don't know how to use the observer/listener to wake/block my main thread. I've used this old post as a template: How to know if other threads have finished? but I can't find a way to wake my main method once a thread calls the update() method. There will be only one observer object instantiated for all threads.
Could you think of a way to use an observer pattern to wait for all threads to finish without blocking main with one by one join() calls? Any other suggestion to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Java already has an API to do that: a CompletionService.
A service that decouples the production of new asynchronous tasks from the consumption of the results of completed tasks. Producers submit tasks for execution. Consumers take completed tasks and process their results in the order they complete.
I think you don't need an observer pattern. Thread waiting for any results will have to block, otherwise it will finish or loop in infinity. You can use some kind of BlockingQueue - producers will add result of computation to the blocking queue (then finish) and main thread will just receive these results blocking when there's not any result yet..
Good news for you, it's already implemented :) Great mechanism of CompletionService and Executors framework. Try this:
private static final int NTHREADS = 5;
private static final int NTASKS = 100;
private static final ExecutorService exec = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(NTHREADS);
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
final CompletionService<Long> ecs = new ExecutorCompletionService<Long>(exec);
for (final int i = 0; i < NTASKS ; ++i) {
Callable<Long> task = new Callable<Long>() {
#Override
public Long call() throws Exception {
return i;
}
};
ecs.submit(task);
}
for (int i = 0; i < NTASKS; ++i) {
try {
long l = ecs.take().get();
System.out.print(l);
} catch (ExecutionException e) {
e.getCause().printStackTrace();
}
}
exec.shutdownNow();
exec.awaitTermination(50, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
}
Sounds to me like you are looking for something like the Counting Completion Service recently discussed by Dr. Heinz M. Kabutz.

Java - Basic Multithreading

I would like to ask basic question about Java threads. Let's consider a producer - consumer scenario. Say there is one producer, and n consumer. Consumer arrive at random time, and once they are served they go away, meaning each consumer runs on its own thread. Should I still use run forever condition for consumer ?
public class Consumer extends Thread {
public void run() {
while (true) {
}
}
}
Won't this keep thread running forever ?
I wouldn't extend Thread, instead I would implement Runnable.
If you want the thread to run forever, I would have it loop forever.
A common alternative is to use
while(!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
or
while(!Thread.interrupted()) {
It will, so you might want to do something like
while(beingServed)
{
//check if the customer is done being served (set beingServed to false)
}
This way you'll escaped the loop when it's meant to die.
Why not use a boolean that represents the presence of the Consumer?
public class Consumer extends Thread {
private volatile boolean present;
public Consumer() {
present = true;
}
public void run() {
while (present) {
// Do Stuff
}
}
public void consumerLeft() {
present = false;
}
}
First, you can create for each consumer and after the consumer will finish it's job than the consumer will finish the run function and will die, so no need for infinite loop. however, creating thread for each consumer is not good idea since creation of thread is quite expensive in performance point of view. threads are very expensive resources. In addition, i agree with the answers above that it is better to implement runnable and not to extends thread. extend thread only when you wish to customize your thread.
I strongly suggest you will use thread pool and the consumer will be the runnable object that ran by the thread in the thread pool.
the code should look like this:
public class ConsumerMgr{
int poolSize = 2;
int maxPoolSize = 2;
long keepAliveTime = 10;
ThreadPoolExecutor threadPool = null;
final ArrayBlockingQueue<Runnable> queue = new ArrayBlockingQueue<Runnable>(
5);
public ConsumerMgr()
{
threadPool = new ThreadPoolExecutor(poolSize, maxPoolSize,
keepAliveTime, TimeUnit.SECONDS, queue);
}
public void runTask(Runnable task)
{
// System.out.println("Task count.."+threadPool.getTaskCount() );
// System.out.println("Queue Size before assigning the
// task.."+queue.size() );
threadPool.execute(task);
// System.out.println("Queue Size after assigning the
// task.."+queue.size() );
// System.out.println("Pool Size after assigning the
// task.."+threadPool.getActiveCount() );
// System.out.println("Task count.."+threadPool.getTaskCount() );
System.out.println("Task count.." + queue.size());
}
It is not a good idea to extend Thread (unless you are coding a new kind of thread - ie never).
The best approach is to pass a Runnable to the Thread's constructor, like this:
public class Consumer implements Runnable {
public void run() {
while (true) {
// Do something
}
}
}
new Thread(new Consumer()).start();
In general, while(true) is OK, but you have to handle being interrupted, either by normal wake or by spurious wakeup. There are many examples out there on the web.
I recommend reading Java Concurrency in Practice.
for producer-consumer pattern you better use wait() and notify(). See this tutorial. This is far more efficient than using while(true) loop.
If you want your thread to processes messages until you kill them (or they are killed in some way) inside while (true) there would be some synchronized call to your producer thread (or SynchronizedQueue, or queuing system) which would block until a message becomes available. Once a message is consumed, the loop restarts and waits again.
If you want to manually instantiate a bunch of thread which pull a message from a producer just once then die, don't use while (true).

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