Java Threads

Hiya, just wondering if anyone could tell me how to create a thread pool (by implementing Runnable) of say 20 threads executing task T ?
Thanks in Advance.

I would be looking for actual code not explanation :-)

plk

Homework? Either way, this is not exactly what you are looking for, but it is easy to modify. You can pass as many threads as you wish as parameters in the ThreadPoolTest class.

import java.util.LinkedList;

/**
    A thread pool is a group of a limited number of threads that
    are used to execute tasks.
*/
public class ThreadPool extends ThreadGroup {

    private boolean isAlive;
    private LinkedList taskQueue;
    private int threadID;
    private static int threadPoolID;

    /**
        Creates a new ThreadPool.
        @param numThreads The number of threads in the pool.
    */
    public ThreadPool(int numThreads) {
        super("ThreadPool-" + (threadPoolID++));
        setDaemon(true);

        isAlive = true;

        taskQueue = new LinkedList();
        for (int i=0; i<numThreads; i++) {
            new PooledThread().start();
        }
    }


    /**
        Requests a new task to run. This method returns
        immediately, and the task executes on the next available
        idle thread in this ThreadPool.
        <p>Tasks start execution in the order they are received.
        @param task The task to run. If null, no action is taken.
        @throws IllegalStateException if this ThreadPool is
        already closed.
    */
    public synchronized void runTask(Runnable task) {
        if (!isAlive) {
            throw new IllegalStateException();
        }
        if (task != null) {
            taskQueue.add(task);
            notify();
        }

    }


    protected synchronized Runnable getTask()
        throws InterruptedException
    {
        while (taskQueue.size() == 0) {
            if (!isAlive) {
                return null;
            }
            wait();
        }
        return (Runnable)taskQueue.removeFirst();
    }


    /**
        Closes this ThreadPool and returns immediately. All
        threads are stopped, and any waiting tasks are not
        executed. Once a ThreadPool is closed, no more tasks can
        be run on this ThreadPool.
    */
    public synchronized void close() {
        if (isAlive) {
            isAlive = false;
            taskQueue.clear();
            interrupt();
        }
    }


    /**
        Closes this ThreadPool and waits for all running threads
        to finish. Any waiting tasks are executed.
    */
    public void join() {
        // notify all waiting threads that this ThreadPool is no
        // longer alive
        synchronized (this) {
            isAlive = false;
            notifyAll();
        }

        // wait for all threads to finish
        Thread[] threads = new Thread[activeCount()];
        int count = enumerate(threads);
        for (int i=0; i<count; i++) {
            try {
                threads[i].join();
            }
            catch (InterruptedException ex) { }
        }
    }


    /**
        A PooledThread is a Thread in a ThreadPool group, designed
        to run tasks (Runnables).
    */
    private class PooledThread extends Thread {


        public PooledThread() {
            super(ThreadPool.this,
                "PooledThread-" + (threadID++));
        }


        public void run() {
            while (!isInterrupted()) {

                // get a task to run
                Runnable task = null;
                try {
                    task = getTask();
                }
                catch (InterruptedException ex) { }

                // if getTask() returned null or was interrupted,
                // close this thread by returning.
                if (task == null) {
                    return;
                }

                // run the task, and eat any exceptions it throws
                try {
                    task.run();
                }
                catch (Throwable t) {
                    uncaughtException(this, t);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

public class ThreadPoolTest {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        if (args.length != 2) {
            System.out.println("Tests the ThreadPool task.");
            System.out.println(
                "Usage: java ThreadPoolTest numTasks numThreads");
            System.out.println(
                "  numTasks - integer: number of task to run.");
            System.out.println(
                "  numThreads - integer: number of threads " +
                "in the thread pool.");
            return;
        }
        int numTasks = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
        int numThreads = Integer.parseInt(args[1]);

        // create the thread pool
        ThreadPool threadPool = new ThreadPool(numThreads);

        // run example tasks
        for (int i=0; i<numTasks; i++) {
            threadPool.runTask(createTask(i));
        }

        // close the pool and wait for all tasks to finish.
        threadPool.join();
    }


    /**
        Creates a simple Runnable that prints an ID, waits 500
        milliseconds, then prints the ID again.
    */
    private static Runnable createTask(final int taskID) {
        return new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                System.out.println("Task " + taskID + ": start");

                // simulate a long-running task
                try {
                    Thread.sleep(500);
                }
                catch (InterruptedException ex) { }

                System.out.println("Task " + taskID + ": end");
            }
        };
    }

}

All credits to David Brackeen, author of one of the coolest Java books around: Developing Games in Java, which is the base of many of my games.

Regards!

Kinda Homework :-)
Exam on Wednesday and I kinda missed the lectures on thread pools. I can see that here threads are creating by extending the Thread class, I've been told that its a bad practice, and that its better to implement the Runnable interface, I guess that it does not make any big difference for my level application codes but we've been told to implement Runnable as a good coding practice.
Anyway thanks for this code. :-)

Back to cramming .....

plk

You're welcome.

Now, extending a class or implementing an interface is often one of the funniest discussions one can have with Java and it can easily lead to a flamebait, so I'm not touching that with a sixty foot pole . But you may want to read an article about that:

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/j...-abstract.html

Regards!

You can extend only one class so that's why implementing is better.

true :-) thats what we've been told :-)
Anyway, that article is pretty good :-)

plk