Multithreading in

Java
Prepared By:
Munir Ahmad

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Problem
 Multiple tasks for computer
 Draw & display images on screen
 Check keyboard & mouse input

 Send & receive data on network

 Read & write files to disk

 Perform useful computation (editor, browser, game)

 How does computer do everything at once?

 Multitasking

 Multiprocessing

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Multitasking (Time-Sharing)
 Approach
 Computer does some work on a task
 Computer then quickly switch to next task

 Tasks managed by operating system (scheduler)

 Computer seems to work on tasks concurrently

 Can improve performance by reducing waiting

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Multitasking Can Aid Performance
 Single task

 Two tasks

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Multiprocessing (Multithreading)
 Approach
 Multipleprocessing units (multiprocessor)
 Computer works on several tasks in parallel

 Performance can be improved

Dual-core AMD 32 processor 4096 processor

Athlon X2 Pentium Xeon Cray X1
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Perform Multiple Tasks Using…
 Thread
 Definition– sequentially executed stream of instructions
 Shares address space with other threads

 Has own execution context

 Program counter, call stack (local variables)
 Communicate via shared access to data
 Multiple threads in process execute same program

 Also known as “lightweight process”

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Motivation for Multithreading
 Captures logical structure of problem
 May have concurrent interacting components
 Can handle each component using separate thread

 Simplifies programming for problem

 Example

Web Server uses Multiple simultaneous

threads to handle … web browser requests7
Motivation for Multithreading
 Better utilize hardware resources
 When a thread is delayed, compute other threads
 Given extra hardware, compute threads in parallel

 Reduce overall execution time

 Example

Multiple simultaneous Handled faster by

web browser requests… multiple web servers8
Multithreading Overview
 Motivation & background
 Threads
 Creating Java threads
 Thread states

 Scheduling

 Synchronization
 Data races
 Locks

 Wait / Notify

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Creating Threads in Java
 You have to specify the work you want the thread to
do
 Define a class that implements the Runnable
interface
 public interface Runnable {
 public void run();
}

 Put the work in the run method

 Create an instance of the worker class and create a
thread to run it
 or hand the worker instance to an executor 10
Thread Class
 public class Thread {

 public Thread(Runnable R); // Thread ⇒ R.run()

 public Thread(Runnable R, String name);

 public void start(); // begin thread execution

 ...
}

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More Thread Class Methods
 public class Thread {
 …
 public String getName();
 public void interrupt();
 public boolean isAlive();
 public void join();
 public void setDaemon(boolean on);
 public void setName(String name);
 public void setPriority(int level);

 public static Thread currentThread(); 12

Creating Threads in Java
 Runnable interface
 Create object implementing Runnable interface
 Pass it to Thread object via Thread constructor
 Example
 public class MyT implements Runnable {
 public void run() {
 … // work for thread
 }
 }
 Thread t = new Thread(new MyT()); // create thread
 t.start(); // begin running thread
 … // thread executing in parallel
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Alternative (Not Recommended)
 Directly extend Thread class
 public class MyT extends Thread {
 public void run() {
 … // work for thread
 }
}

 MyT t = new MyT(); // create thread

 t.start(); // begin running thread


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Why not recommended?
 Not a big problem for getting started
 but a bad habit for industrial strength development

 The methods of the worker class and the Thread

class get all tangled up

 Makes it hard to migrate to Thread Pools and other

more efficient approaches

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Threads – Thread States
 Java thread can be in one of these states
 New – thread allocated & waiting for start()
 Runnable – thread can execute
 Blocked – thread waiting for event (I/O, etc.)
 Terminated – thread finished
 Transitions between states caused by
 Invoking methods in class Thread
 start(), yield(), sleep()
 Other (external) events
 Scheduler, I/O, returning from run()…
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Threads – Thread States
 State diagram

new start
IO complete,
new runnable
sleep expired,
join complete,
terminate acquire lock

blocked
IO, sleep, join,
request lock
terminated

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Java Thread Example
 public class ThreadExample implements Runnable {
 public void run() {
 for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
 System.out.println(i);


 }
 public static void main(String[] args) {
 new Thread(new ThreadExample()).start();
 new Thread( new ThreadExample()).start();
 System.out.println("Done");
 } 18

}
Java Thread Example – Output
 Possible outputs
 0,1,2,0,1,2,Done // thread 1, thread 2, main()
 0,1,2,Done,0,1,2 // thread 1, main(), thread 2
 Done,0,1,2,0,1,2 // main(), thread 1, thread 2
 0,0,1,1,2,Done,2 // main() & threads interleaved

main (): thread 1, thread 2, println Done

thread 1: println 0, println 1, println 2

thread 2: println 0, println 1, println 2

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Daemon Threads
 Why doesn’t the program quit as soon as Done is
printed?
 Java threads types
 User

 Daemon
 Provide general services
 Typically never terminate

 Call setDaemon() before start()

 Program termination
 If all non-daemon threads terminate, JVM shuts down
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Thread Groups
 Sometimes it is useful to identify various threads
oas belonging to a thread group
 ThreadGroup is a class
 At constructor time the group is given a unique name
via a string argument
 Parent threads and child threads

 class ThreadGroup provides tow constructors

• public ThreadGroup (String stringName)
• public ThreadGroup (ThreadGroup
parentThreadGroup, String stringName)
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Thread Groups cont…
 class ThreadGroup provides three constructors tha
enable the programmer to instantiate a Thread and
associate it with a ThreadGroup
• public Thread (ThreadGroup threadGroup, String
stringName)
• public Thread (ThreadGroup threadGroup, Runnab
runnableObject)
•public Thread (ThreadGroup threadGroup, Runnabl
runnableObject, String stringName)

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Thread Groups Methods
 activeCount reports the number of active
threads in a thread group plus the number of
active threads in all its child thread groups
 getMaxPriority
setMaxPriority
getName
getParent

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 THANKS

Question & Answers

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