Multithreading

A thread is a light wieght process.

A thread is a subpart of a process that can run individually.
There are two types of multitasking, and they are as follows:

Java Thread Model

New
When a thread object is created using new, then the thread is said to be in the New
state. This state is also known as Born state.

Example

Thread t1 = new Thread();

Runnable / Ready
When a thread calls start( ) method, then the thread is said to be in the Runnable
state. This state is also known as a Ready state.

Example

[Link]( );

Running
When a thread calls run( ) method, then the thread is said to be Running. The run( )
method of a thread called automatically by the start( ) method.

Blocked / Waiting
A thread in the Running state may move into the blocked state due to various
reasons like sleep( ) method called, wait( ) method called, suspend( ) method called,
and join( ) method called, etc.
When a thread is in the blocked or waiting state, it may move to Runnable state due
to reasons like sleep time completed, waiting time completed, notify( ) or notifyAll( )
method called, resume( ) method called, etc.

Example

[Link](1000);
wait(1000);
wait();
suspened();
notify();
notifyAll();
resume();

Dead / Terminated
A thread in the Running state may move into the dead state due to either its
execution completed or the stop( ) method called. The dead state is also known as
the terminated state.

Creating threads in java

The java programming language provides two methods to create threads, and they
are listed below.

• Using Thread class (by extending Thread class)

• Uisng Runnable interface (by implementing Runnable interface)

Extending Thread class

The java contains a built-in class Thread inside the [Link] package. The Thread
class contains all the methods that are related to the threads.
To create a thread using Thread class, follow the step given below.

• Step-1: Create a class as a child of Thread class. That means, create a class
that extends Thread class.
• Step-2: Override the run( ) method with the code that is to be executed by the
thread. The run( ) method must be public while overriding.
• Step-3: Create the object of the newly created class in the main( ) method.
• Step-4: Call the start( ) method on the object created in the above step.

Implementng Runnable interface

The java contains a built-in interface Runnable inside the [Link] package. The
Runnable interface implemented by the Thread class that contains all the methods
that are related to the threads.
To create a thread using Runnable interface, follow the step given below.
 • Step-1: Create a class that implements Runnable interface.
• Step-2: Override the run( ) method with the code that is to be executed by the
thread. The run( ) method must be public while overriding.
• Step-3: Create the object of the newly created class in the main( ) method.
• Step-4: Create the Thread class object by passing above created object as
parameter to the Thread class constructor.
• Step-5: Call the start( ) method on the Thread class object created in the
above step.

Java Thread Priority

The java programming language Thread class provides two
methods setPriority(int), and getPriority( ) to handle thread priorities.
The Thread class also contains three constants that are used to set the thread
priority, and they are listed below.

• MAX_PRIORITY - It has the value 10 and indicates highest priority.

• NORM_PRIORITY - It has the value 5 and indicates normal priority.
• MIN_PRIORITY - It has the value 1 and indicates lowest priority.
🔔 The default priority of any thread is 5 (i.e. NORM_PRIORITY).

setPriority( ) method
The setPriority( ) method of Thread class used to set the priority of a thread. It takes
an integer range from 1 to 10 as an argument and returns nothing (void).
The regular use of the setPriority( ) method is as follows.

Example
[Link](4);
or
[Link](MAX_PRIORITY);

getPriority( ) method
The getPriority( ) method of Thread class used to access the priority of a thread. It
does not takes anyargument and returns name of the thread as String.
The regular use of the getPriority( ) method is as follows.

Example
String threadName = [Link]();

🔔 In java, it is not guaranteed that threads execute according to their priority

because it depends on JVM specification that which scheduling it chooses.

Java Thread Synchronisation

🔔 The synchronization is the process of allowing only one thread to access a
shared resource at a time.
In java, the synchronization is achieved using the following concepts.

• Mutual Exclusion
• Inter thread communication

Mutual Exclusion
Using the mutual exclusion process, we keep threads from interfering with one
another while they accessing the shared resource. In java, mutual exclusion is
achieved using the following concepts.

• Synchronized method
• Synchronized block

Synchronized method
When a method created using a synchronized keyword, it allows only one object to
access it at a time. When an object calls a synchronized method, it put a lock on that
method so that other objects or thread that are trying to call the same method must
wait, until the lock is released. Once the lock is released on the shared resource, one
of the threads among the waiting threads will be allocated to the shared resource.

In the above image, initially the thread-1 is accessing the synchronized method and
other threads (thread-2, thread-3, and thread-4) are waiting for the resource
(synchronized method). When thread-1 completes it task, then one of the threads
that are waiting is allocated with the synchronized method, in the above it is thread-
3.

Synchronized block
The synchronized block is used when we want to synchronize only a specific
sequence of lines in a method. For example, let's consider a method with 20 lines of
code where we want to synchronize only a sequence of 5 lines code, we use the
synchronized block.
🔔 The complete code of a method may be written inside the synchronized block,
where it works similarly to the synchronized method.

Java Inter Thread Communication

Java provides the following methods to achieve inter thread communication.

• wait( )
• notify( )
• notifyAll( )

🔔 All the methods wait( ), notify( ), and notifyAll( ) can be used only inside the
synchronized methods only.