[java] In Java, how do you determine if a thread is running?

How do you determine if a thread is running?

You can use: Thread.currentThread().isAlive();. Returns true if this thread is alive; false otherwise.

Have your thread notify some other thread when it’s finished. This way you’ll always know exactly what’s going on.

Check the thread status by calling Thread.isAlive.

Thread.isAlive()

Thought to write a code to demonstrate the isAlive() , getState() methods, this example monitors a thread still it terminates(dies).

package Threads;

import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class ThreadRunning {


    static class MyRunnable implements Runnable {

        private void method1() {

            for(int i=0;i<3;i++){
                try{
                    TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(1);
                }catch(InterruptedException ex){}
                method2();
            }
            System.out.println("Existing Method1");
        }

        private void method2() {

            for(int i=0;i<2;i++){
                try{
                    TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(1);
                }catch(InterruptedException ex){}
                method3();
            }
            System.out.println("Existing Method2");
        }

        private void method3() {

            for(int i=0;i<1;i++){
                try{
                    TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(1);
                }catch(InterruptedException ex){}

            }
            System.out.println("Existing Method3");
        }

        public void run(){
            method1();
        }
    }


    public static void main(String[] args) {

        MyRunnable runMe=new MyRunnable();

        Thread aThread=new Thread(runMe,"Thread A");

        aThread.start();

        monitorThread(aThread);

    }

    public static void monitorThread(Thread monitorMe) {

        while(monitorMe.isAlive())
         {
         try{   
           StackTraceElement[] threadStacktrace=monitorMe.getStackTrace();

           System.out.println(monitorMe.getName() +" is Alive and it's state ="+monitorMe.getState()+" ||  Execution is in method : ("+threadStacktrace[0].getClassName()+"::"+threadStacktrace[0].getMethodName()+") @line"+threadStacktrace[0].getLineNumber());  

               TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.sleep(700);
           }catch(Exception ex){}
    /* since threadStacktrace may be empty upon reference since Thread A may be terminated after the monitorMe.getStackTrace(); call*/
         }
        System.out.println(monitorMe.getName()+" is dead and its state ="+monitorMe.getState());
    }


}

Thread.State enum class and the new getState() API are provided for querying the execution state of a thread.

A thread can be in only one state at a given point in time. These states are virtual machine states which do not reflect any operating system thread states [NEW, RUNNABLE, BLOCKED, WAITING, TIMED_WAITING, TERMINATED].

enum Thread.State extends Enum implements Serializable, Comparable

• getState()^jdk5 - public State getState() {...} « Returns the state of this thread. This method is designed for use in monitoring of the system state, not for synchronization control.

• isAlive() - public final native boolean isAlive(); « Returns true if the thread upon which it is called is still alive, otherwise it returns false. A thread is alive if it has been started and has not yet died.

Sample Source Code's of classes java.lang.Thread and sun.misc.VM.

package java.lang;
public class Thread implements Runnable {
    public final native boolean isAlive();

    // Java thread status value zero corresponds to state "NEW" - 'not yet started'.
    private volatile int threadStatus = 0;

    public enum State {
        NEW, RUNNABLE, BLOCKED, WAITING, TIMED_WAITING, TERMINATED;
    }

    public State getState() {
        return sun.misc.VM.toThreadState(threadStatus);
    }
}

package sun.misc;
public class VM {
    // ...
    public static Thread.State toThreadState(int threadStatus) {
        if ((threadStatus & JVMTI_THREAD_STATE_RUNNABLE) != 0) {
            return Thread.State.RUNNABLE;
        } else if ((threadStatus & JVMTI_THREAD_STATE_BLOCKED_ON_MONITOR_ENTER) != 0) {
            return Thread.State.BLOCKED;
        } else if ((threadStatus & JVMTI_THREAD_STATE_WAITING_INDEFINITELY) != 0) {
            return Thread.State.WAITING;
        } else if ((threadStatus & JVMTI_THREAD_STATE_WAITING_WITH_TIMEOUT) != 0) {
            return Thread.State.TIMED_WAITING;
        } else if ((threadStatus & JVMTI_THREAD_STATE_TERMINATED) != 0) {
            return Thread.State.TERMINATED;
        } else if ((threadStatus & JVMTI_THREAD_STATE_ALIVE) == 0) {
            return Thread.State.NEW;
        } else {
            return Thread.State.RUNNABLE;
        }
    }
}

Example with java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch to execute multiple threads parallel, After completing all threads main thread execute. (until parallel threads complete their task main thread will be blocked.)

public class MainThread_Wait_TillWorkerThreadsComplete {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
        System.out.println("Main Thread Started...");
        // countDown() should be called 4 time to make count 0. So, that await() will release the blocking threads.
        int latchGroupCount = 4;
        CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(latchGroupCount);
        new Thread(new Task(2, latch), "T1").start();
        new Thread(new Task(7, latch), "T2").start();
        new Thread(new Task(5, latch), "T3").start();
        new Thread(new Task(4, latch), "T4").start();

        //latch.countDown(); // Decrements the count of the latch group.

        // await() method block until the current count reaches to zero
        latch.await(); // block until latchGroupCount is 0
        System.out.println("Main Thread completed.");
    }
}
class Task extends Thread {
    CountDownLatch latch;
    int iterations = 10;
    public Task(int iterations, CountDownLatch latch) {
        this.iterations = iterations;
        this.latch = latch;
    }
    @Override
    public void run() {
        String threadName = Thread.currentThread().getName();
        System.out.println(threadName + " : Started Task...");
        for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++) {
            System.out.println(threadName + " : "+ i);
            sleep(1);
        }
        System.out.println(threadName + " : Completed Task");
        latch.countDown(); // Decrements the count of the latch,
    }
    public void sleep(int sec) {
        try {
            Thread.sleep(1000 * sec);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

@See also

• “implements Runnable” vs. “extends Thread”
• Thread States
• Thread States Diagram
• How to start two threads at “exactly” the same time

You can use this method:

boolean isAlive()

It returns true if the thread is still alive and false if the Thread is dead. This is not static. You need a reference to the object of the Thread class.

One more tip: If you're checking it's status to make the main thread wait while the new thread is still running, you may use join() method. It is more handy.

I think you can use GetState(); It can return the exact state of a thread.

Use Thread.currentThread().isAlive() to see if the thread is alive[output should be true] which means thread is still running the code inside the run() method or use Thread.currentThread.getState() method to get the exact state of the thread.

To be precise,

Thread.isAlive() returns true if the thread has been started (may not yet be running) but has not yet completed its run method.

Thread.getState() returns the exact state of the thread.