programming language

In short "Threads enhance performance and functionality in various programming languages -- including Java -- by allowing a program to efficiently perform multiple tasks simultaneously "

There are two ways to create a new thread of execution. One is to declare a class to be a subclass of Thread. This subclass should override the run method of class Thread. An instance of the subclass can then be allocated and started. For example, a thread that computes primes larger than a stated value could be written as follows: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- class PrimeThread extends Thread { long minPrime; PrimeThread(long minPrime) { this.minPrime = minPrime; } public void run() { // compute primes larger than minPrime . . . } } -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following code would then create a thread and start it running: PrimeThread p = new PrimeThread(143); p.start(); The other way to create a thread is to declare a class that implements the Runnable interface. That class then implements the run method. An instance of the class can then be allocated, passed as an argument when creating Thread, and started. The same example in this other style looks like the following: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- class PrimeRun implements Runnable { long minPrime; PrimeRun(long minPrime) { this.minPrime = minPrime; } public void run() { // compute primes larger than minPrime . . . } } -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following code would then create a thread and start it running: PrimeRun p = new PrimeRun(143); new Thread(p).start(); Every thread has a name for identification purposes. More than one thread may have the same name. If a name is not specified when a thread is created, a new name is generated for it.