Thread Concept in Java

What is a Thread?

A subprocess that is lightweight in Java is known as a thread. It is the smallest unit of a process. For the running of multiple tasks parallelly we can use threads. Before we were unable to run multiple tasks at the same time. To overcome that drawback, the thread concept was introduced. A thread is similar to a program. It is a subpart of a program. And it has a flow of control.

As shown in the above figure, inside a process a thread is executed. Inside the OS (Operating system) we will have multiple processes. And inside each process, we will have multiple threads.

Advantages of Threads

• Threads are independent.
  That means threads have a separate path for execution. If we have an exception in one thread, all the remaining threads are not affected.

• Threads use a shared memory area.

Java Thread Class

To achieve thread programming, we have a " Thread class " in Java. This Thread class provides many methods as well as constructors to perform and create operations on the thread.

Thread methods in Thread class

Many methods are provided by the Thread class. A few of them are listed below.

 These are the most used methods of the Thread class.

Constructors of Thread class:

• Thread()
• Thread(Runnable r)
• Thread(String name)
• Thread(Runnable r, String name)

The life cycle of a Thread or Thread States

The Thread goes through 5 stages. They are

Stage 1: New

Stage 2: Runnable

Stage 3: Running

Stage 4: Non-runnable

Stage 5: Terminated

But according to Sun, a thread has only four stages that are only new stage, the runnable stage, the non-runnable stage, and terminated stage. There is no running stage in the life cycle of the thread. But for better understanding, we have to use the running stage. The JVM ( Java virtual machine ) controls the entire life cycle of the thread.

By using a figure, we can easily understand the life cycle of a thread.

Now let us understand each stage clearly,

1. New
   Before invoking the start() method an instance of a Thread class is created then the Thread is said to be in the new stage.
2. Runnable
   After the invocation of the start() method, we can say that a thread is in the runnable stage.
3. Running
   The thread scheduler has selected a thread means it is said to be in the running stage.
4. Non – Runnable
   This stage can also be called as Blocked stage. At this stage, the thread is not eligible to run currently but is still alive.
5. Terminated
   This method is also known as the dead stage. When the run() method exists the thread is terminated.

How to create a thread?

Two ways are available to create a thread, they are:

• By extending the Thread class.
• By implementing a Runnable interface.

Creation 1

ThreadCreation.java

class ThreadCreation extends Thread
{
public void run() // run method
{
System.out.println(" The thread is running... ");
}
public static void main(String args[])
{
ThreadCreation tc = new ThreadCreation();
tc.start(); // start method
}
}

Output:

Now let’s understand how to create a thread by implementing a runnable interface by using an example.

ThreadCreation1.java

class ThreadCreation1 implements Runnable
{
public void run() // run method
{
System.out.println(" The Thread is running ... ");
}
public static void main(String args[])
{
ThreadCreation1 tc = new ThreadCreation1();
Thread t1 = new Thread(tc);
t1.start(); // start method
}
}

Output: