How long a thread will be alive in java? - java

I create a thread using
Thread t = new Thread();
t.start();
You start a thread using t.start();
Now how long the thread will be alive?
To what state it will go after X (the answer of above question) seconds?
Thread t = new Thread();
t.start();
public void run(){
System.out.println("Threads");
}
What will happen if the thread has run() method?

A thread created and started exactly as you describe will be alive only for as long as the empty Thread.run() method takes to do nothing and return. When the thread terminates, the t.isAlive() function will return false.
Normally, a thread does something useful and will be alive for as long as the run() method has not returned.

Related

Destroy/Stop the Thread

I have 2 question regarding on Thread, I just want to clarify something. With the below code:
public class MyThread implements Runnable {
Boolean StopThread = false;
Boolean DontLoop = false;
public MyThread(){}
public void Stop(Boolean stopThread){
this.StopThread = stopThread;
}
public void ThreadDontLoop(Boolean dontLoop){
this.DontLoop = dontLoop;
}
public void run(){
if(dontLoop){
while(true){
if(StopThread){
break; //Terminate WhileLoop, This will Stop and destroy the Thread also
}
}
}else{
//Does this mean the Thread will be destroy/terminate after this condition?
}
}
}
In order to Start:
MyThread myThread = new MyThread();
Thread thread = new Thread(myThread);
thread.start();
In order to Start Thread but Don't Loop
ThreadDontLoop(false);
thread.start();
In order to Stop the Thread
myThread.Stop(true);
Now, According to this LINK, that's how the thread to be stopped.
So my first question is, in the Given code above, what if I call ThreadDontLoop(false); then thread.start();, does this mean the Thread will Start but after the condition, the Thread will be stopped and destroy?
Second question is, Let's say I call thread.start(); then later I call myThread.Stop(true); to stop the WhileLoop and Destroy the Thread.
I didn't follow on how the link is stopped the thread since I will have a different condition, but I believe that the logic on how I would like to stop the Thread is correct?
You need a volatile boolean or the value can be inlined and never appear to change.
in the Given code above, what if I call ThreadDontLoop(false); then thread.start();, does this mean the Thread will Start but after the condition, the Thread will be stopped and destroy?
Yes.
Let's say I call thread.start(); then later I call myThread.Stop(true); to stop the WhileLoop and Destroy the Thread. I didn't follow on how the link is stopped the thread since I will have a different condition, but I believe that the logic on how I would like to stop the Thread is correct?
If you don't have a visibility issue (does the thread see your change) it will stop. In the code you have in the question, most likely the code will be optimised to assume the thread never sees the change.

What is the difference between setting the priority for the main thread or not?

I have this Question :
Create and run a thread that writes "Hello friends" on screen. The main Thread waits for it only 500 milliseconds. Then run the program again after you give the created Thread lower priority than the main Thread. This time, the main Thread should wait for it 10 milliseconds. Do you notice anything? Why?
I want to know the difference that made by Thread.setPriority(n)
first code and second get the same output
first code
public class Q2 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Thread2 myThread = new Thread2();
myThread.start();
System.out.println("main thread");
}
}
class Thread2 extends Thread{
#Override
public void run(){
try {
join(500);
System.out.println("Hello Friends from thread2");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
seconde code
public class Q2 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Thread2 myThread = new Thread2();
myThread.start();
System.out.println("main thread");
}
}
class Thread2 extends Thread{
#Override
public void run(){
try {
setPriority(MIN_PRIORITY);
join(500);
System.out.println("Hello Friends from thread2");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
the main Thread should wait for it 10 milliseconds
That's not what your code does. The join should be in the main thread, not in the newly created thread:
Thread2 myThread = new Thread2();
myThread.start();
myThread.join(10);
I assume the whole idea of this exercise is to see the difference between two threads with different priorities. Giving a thread a lower priority may delay its scheduled execution. When the main thread waits for a smaller duration for the new thread to finish, the outputs of the two threads may interleave since the main thread may continue to reach the System.out before the second thread does.
The documentation of the Thread class explains what a thread priority is:
Every thread has a priority. Threads with higher priority are executed in preference to threads with lower priority.
In general, don't extend Thread, you should wrap a Runnable instead.
The Thread priority is
just a hint, the OS can and does ignore it if you don't have the right permissions.
It will only matter if you don't have free CPU. If you have free CPU every thread which wants to run can run.
it really won't matter if you are putting your thread to sleep. e.g. a join.
The only difference it could make is when your machine is very busy, it would take a little longer to wake up from the sleep. e.g. instead of taking say 500 to 501 ms to do the join, it might take 510 ms sometimes.
how can I use join method ?
The purpose of join is to wait for another thread to finish up to some time limit. If you join on yourself, this is effectively the same as Thread.sleep I suggest using Thread.sleep instead as this is less confusing.
First, from the documentation for Thread:
Waits at most millis milliseconds for this thread to die. A timeout of 0 means to wait forever.
So when you have two Thread instances, lets say the current one and a new one, you can cause the current thread to wait for the new one to die:
final Thread t = new Thread(() -> System.out.println("Test"));
t.start();
t.join();
So now our current thread (the one creating t) will wait for t to die, then continue. This method makes an asynchronous task synchronous.
Now, what does calling join in a Thread do? Well, it means that the thread will wait for itself to die. This is the same as TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.sleep().
So what does your code actually do?
Well, main calls the following code:
Thread2 myThread = new Thread2();
myThread.start();
System.out.println("main thread");
There is nothing here that makes main wait for anything, main dies.
Now your Thread2 (terrible name for a class) does the following:
setPriority(MIN_PRIORITY);
join(500);
System.out.println("Hello Friends from thread2");
So it sets its own priority, it then waits for 500 milliseconds for itself to die. Obviously it doesn't die in that time. It then prints.
TL;DR: setPriority does next to nothing in this code
One further note, do not extends Thread, use a Runnable.

Why the below program, without a sleep go to deadlock state but with sleep it executes all the three threads and terminates normally?

public class ThreadTest {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
ExampleTest obj = new ExampleTest();
Thread t1 = new Thread(new Runn(obj));
Thread t2 = new Thread(new Runn(obj));
Thread t3 = new Thread(new Runn(obj));
t1.start();
t2.start();
t3.start();
//Thread.sleep(1);
obj.exit();
}
}
class ExampleTest {
public synchronized void enter() {
try {
System.out.println("printed " +Thread.currentThread().getName() +" inside wait");
this.wait();
System.out.println("printed " +Thread.currentThread().getName() +" exit wait");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("printed " +Thread.currentThread().getName() +" at time: "+System.currentTimeMillis());
}
public synchronized void exit() {
this.notifyAll();
}
}
class Runn implements Runnable {
ExampleTest obj;
public Runn(ExampleTest obj) {
this.obj = obj;
}
#Override
public void run() {
obj.enter();
}
}
what is the role of notifyAll(). Will notifyAll() allows all the waiting thread to acquire lock sequentially in random order or only one thread can acquire the lock?
Without the sleep statement the statement obj.exit(); will be very likely be executed before all of your threads reaching their wait status. ie. the notifyAll call will be over before at least one of your thread is in wait status. So at least one of your threads will be stuck in wait status waiting for some other thread to notify it and wake up. But that will never happen as obj.exit() is already finished.
With your sleep statement in place , all of your threads will get a chance to reach their wait status and your notifyAll call after the sleep will wake them all, The order of waking up will not be deterministic and will be handled by the thread scheduler.
Your code suffers from the "lost notification" syndrome, which is alleviated (but not deterministically avoided) by the sleep call.
You haven't provided any mechanism which would ensure that, at the time of calling exit, all the threads have already reached their wait call. Therefore some threads will miss the notification and enter an eternal wait state.
The notifyAll call does wake up all waiting threads, but it doesn't wake up threads which enter the wait state in the future.
With the following code:
t1.start();
t2.start();
t3.start();
You are starting the threads. Starting threads might take some time as it involves memory allocation and other operations. When your threads run they enter a wait state. Started threads do not, however, execute immediately. They start executing as soon as the scheduler decides it is time for them to execute. When you call start the main thread is currently running on the CPU. Without the sleep most likely the main thread will keep the CPU and call:
obj.exit();
Before the threads actually started, that is, before the threads actually entered the wait state. The notifyAll will execute in vain, as threads are not started yet and therefore are not waiting. The notification will be lost.
With the sleep call you are suspending the main thread for quite some time (for the CPU perspective). This means that the other threads will most likely get the CPU and enter the wait state. So when you then call notifyAll this time the notification will not get lost. Notice that there is no guarantee that this will happens: it might still happen that when you call exit() some (or all) other threads have not yet executed their wait.

How can we call multiple threads in Java?

Is there any way to call a thread after finishing the work of another thread? I just want to call three threads back to back as work gets finished of previous thread.
I'm trying this
public class TestThreads {
public static void main (String [] args) {
MyRunnable r = new MyRunnable();
Thread first = new Thread(r);
Thread second = new Thread(r);
Thread third = new Thread(r);
first.start();
second.start();
third.start();
}
}
Is it correct way??
You are looking for Thread.Join()
The join method allows one thread to wait for the completion of
another. If t is a Thread object whose thread is currently executing,
t.join();
causes the current thread to pause execution until t's thread
terminates. Overloads of join allow the programmer to specify a
waiting period. However, as with sleep, join is dependent on the OS
for timing, so you should not assume that join will wait exactly as
long as you specify.
Like sleep, join responds to an interrupt by exiting with an
InterruptedException.
So it would be like
first.start();
first.join();
second.start();
second.join();
third.start();
On a side note you can refer this Thread join() method in Java with example
Joins
The join method allows one thread to wait for the completion of
another. If t is a Thread object whose thread is currently executing,
t.join(); causes the current thread to pause execution until t's
thread terminates. Overloads of join allow the programmer to specify a
waiting period. However, as with sleep, join is dependent on the OS
for timing, so you should not assume that join will wait exactly as
long as you specify.
Like sleep, join responds to an interrupt by exiting with an
InterruptedException.
Here is a simple change in your code
public class TestThreads {
public static void main (String [] args) {
MyRunnable r = new MyRunnable();
Thread first = new Thread(r);
Thread second = new Thread(r);
Thread third = new Thread(r);
first.start();
first.join(); // will wait for the first thread to terminate
second.start();
second.join(); // will wait for the second thread to terminate
third.start();
}
}
Why are you using thread? If you don't want the parallel processing, You should go ahead with sequential execution.
If you still want to use threads you can use the join method.
first.start();
first.join();
second.start();
second.join();
third.start()

Tell the cause from an InterruptedException

If my thread receives an InterruptedException in a sleep(), how can I tell whether it was caused by a call on its .interrupt() or .notify() method?
The long story:
I have a View() class running in a thread. It should run worker(s) and update the view from time to time. It should also measure the time the worker took. The View() should be interruptable by the application (upon shutdown). The workers should wake up (notify) the thread during sleep when they have finished to measure the time they took. (Without notification, time measured would be rounded up to the next full sleep cycle which isn’t desired.) So an InterruptedException can be triggered by a call on the thread’s .interrupt() or .notify() method. How do I distinguish this inside the catch block?
public class View() implements Runnable {
Long started = null;
Long finished = null;
#Overload
public void run(){
Set<Thread> workers = new HashSet<Thread>();
for(int i = 1; i <= 5; i++){
Thread worker = new Thread(new Worker());
worker.start();
workers.add(worker);
}
started = System.getCurrentTimeMillis();
do{
try{
TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(3);
updateView();
}catch(InterruptedException e){
if(--> thread_was_notified <--){
finished = System.getCurrentTimeMillis();
updateView();
}
if(--> thread_was_notified <--){
for(Thread worker : workers)
worker.interrupt();
}
return;
}
}while(true);
}
protected void updateView(){
// …
}
}
I first guessed that InterruptedException would have Subclasses, but there are none directly known subclasses listet in the javadoc. Thread provides .isInterrupted(), but as said here: “By convention, any method that exits by throwing an InterruptedException clears interrupt status when it does so.” So I can’t tell from .isInterrupted() either. What’s the clean way to do it?
I have a vegue idea that my code should use Object.wait(), but what’s the waiting object?
The ugly solution:
Instead of having your Workers interrupting the View thread, put a method like this:
public void workedFinished() {
interruptedByWorker = true; // View attribute.
viewThread.interrupt(); // Interrupt the view
}
Then, when you're on your catch, check for the interruptedByWorker boolean. If it is true, it was interrupted by a worker. Otherwise (make sure this is happens), it was interrupted by the shutdown.
The other solution
Instead of interrupting the thread in two different places (which I think it could be confusing an error-prone), you could do the following:
1) Schedule a Runnable to run every 3 seconds using a ScheduledExecutorService to update the view.
2) Have a CountdownLatch that is notified for each Worker that finishes. Please, notice that in your code, the first thread wakes up the View, meaning that the measured time will be only for that thread, it will not wait until the other threads finish.
InterruptedException is only thrown when some thread interrupts you and not thrown when comming out of wait().
So when you are in sleep() or wait() and some other thread decides to interrupt you then Exception will be thrown.
When a thread is in wait() state and notify() is called for it then it will again fetch the lock and resume its working without throwing any exception.

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