The difference between the Runnable and Callable interfaces in Java

Question

What is the difference between using the Runnable and Callable interfaces when designing a concurrent thread in Java  why would you choose one over the other

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I found this in another blog that can explain it a little bit more these differences:

Though both the interfaces are implemented by the classes who wish to execute in a different thread of execution, but there are few differences between the two interface which are:

A Callable<V> instance returns a result of type V, whereas a Runnable instance doesn't.
A Callable<V> instance may throw checked exceptions, whereas a Runnable instance can't

The designers of Java felt a need of extending the capabilities of the Runnable interface, but they didn't want to affect the uses of the Runnable interface and probably that was the reason why they went for having a separate interface named Callable in Java 1.5 than changing the already existing Runnable.

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------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                 Runnable                                                           Callable lt T gt                                                ------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    Introduced in Java 1 0 of java lang   Introduced in Java 1 5 of java util concurrent library                                               Runnable cannot be parametrized       Callable is a parametrized type whose type parameter indicates the return type of its run method     Runnable has run   method             Callable has call   method                                                                           Runnable run   returns void           Callable call   returns a value of Type T                                                            Can not throw Checked Exceptions      Can throw Checked Exceptions                                                                        ------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    The designers of Java felt a need of extending the capabilities of the Runnable interface  but they didn t want to affect the uses of the Runnable interface and probably that was the reason why they went for having a separate interface named Callable in Java 1 5 than changing the already existing Runnable interface which has been a part of Java since Java 1 0  source

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A Callable needs to implement call   method while a Runnable needs to implement run   method  A Callable can return a value but a Runnable cannot  A Callable can throw checked exception but a Runnable cannot  A Callable can be used with ExecutorService invokeXXX Collection lt   extends Callable lt T gt  gt  tasks  methods but a Runnable cannot be   public interface Runnable       void run       public interface Callable lt V gt        V call   throws Exception

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Purpose of these interfaces from oracle documentation    Runnable interface should be implemented by any class whose instances are intended to be executed by a Thread  The class must define a method of no arguments called run   Callable  A task that returns a result and may throw an exception  Implementors define a single method with no arguments called call  The Callable interface is similar to Runnable  in that both are designed for classes whose instances are potentially executed by another thread  A Runnable  however  does not return a result and cannot throw a checked exception   Other differences    You can pass Runnable to create a Thread  But you can t create new Thread by passing Callable as parameter  You can pass Callable only to ExecutorService instances   Example   public class HelloRunnable implements Runnable        public void run             System out println  Hello from a thread                   public static void main String args               new Thread new HelloRunnable     start              Use Runnable for fire and forget calls  Use Callable to verify the result  Callable can be passed to invokeAll method unlike Runnable  Methods invokeAny and invokeAll perform the most commonly useful forms of bulk execution  executing a collection of tasks and then waiting for at least one  or all  to complete Trivial difference   method name to be implemented    run   for Runnable and call   for Callable

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Callable interface declares call   method and you need to provide generics as type of Object call   should return -  public interface Callable lt V gt                   Computes a result  or throws an exception if unable to do so                 return computed result         throws Exception if unable to compute a result             V call   throws Exception      Runnable on the other hand is interface that declares run   method that is called when you create a Thread with the runnable and call start   on it  You can also directly call run   but that just executes the run   method is same thread   public interface Runnable                  When an object implementing interface  lt code gt Runnable lt  code gt  is used         to create a thread  starting the thread causes the object s          lt code gt run lt  code gt  method to be called in that separately executing         thread           lt p gt         The general contract of the method  lt code gt run lt  code gt  is that it may         take any action whatsoever                 see     java lang Thread run               public abstract void run        To summarize few notable Difference are   A Runnable object does not return a result whereas a Callable object returns a result  A Runnable object cannot throw a checked exception wheras a Callable object can throw an exception  The Runnable interface has been around since Java 1 0 whereas Callable was only introduced in Java 1 5    Few similarities include   Instances of the classes that implement Runnable or Callable interfaces are potentially executed by another thread  Instance of both Callable and Runnable interfaces can be executed by ExecutorService via submit   method  Both are functional interfaces and can be used in Lambda expressions since Java8    Methods in ExecutorService interface are   lt T gt  Future lt T gt  submit Callable lt T gt  task   Future lt   gt  submit Runnable task    lt T gt  Future lt T gt  submit Runnable task  T result

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It is a kind of an interface naming convention which matches with functional programming   Runnable interface Runnable       void run         Action - throws exception interface Action       void run   throws Exception       Consumer - consumes a value values  throws exception interface Consumer1 lt T gt        void accept T t  throws Exception       Callable - return result  throws exception interface Callable lt R gt        R call   throws Exception       Supplier - returns result  throws exception interface Supplier lt R gt        R get   throws Exception       Predicate - consumes a value values  returns true or false  throws exception interface Predicate1 lt T gt        boolean test T t  throws Exception       Function - consumes a value values  returns result  throws exception public interface Function1 lt T  R gt        R apply T t  throws Exception

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See explanation here      The Callable interface is similar to   Runnable  in that both are designed   for classes whose instances are   potentially executed by another   thread  A Runnable  however  does not   return a result and cannot throw a   checked exception

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What are the differences in the applications of Runnable and Callable  Is the difference only with the return parameter present in Callable    Basically  yes   See the answers to this question   And the javadoc for Callable      What is the need of having both if Callable can do all that Runnable does    Because the Runnable interface cannot do everything that Callable does   Runnable has been around since Java 1 0  but Callable was only introduced in Java 1 5     to handle use-cases that Runnable does not support   In theory  the Java team could have changed the signature of the Runnable run   method  but this would have broken binary compatiblity with pre-1 5 code  requiring recoding when migrating old Java code to newer JVMs   That is a BIG NO-NO   Java strives to be backwards compatible     and that s been one of Java s biggest selling points for business computing   And  obviously  there are use-cases where a task doesn t need to return a result or throw a checked exception   For those use-cases  using Runnable is more concise than using Callable lt Void gt  and returning a dummy  null  value from the call   method

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Runnable  vs  Callable comes into point when we are using Executer framework   ExecutorService is a subinterface of Executor  which accepts both Runnable and Callable tasks   Earlier Multi-Threading can be achieved using Interface RunnableSince 1 0  but here the problem is after completing the thread task we are unable to collect the Threads information  In-order to collect the data we may use Static fields   Example Separate threads to collect each student data   static HashMap lt String  List gt  multiTasksData   new HashMap    public static void main String   args        Thread t1   new Thread  new RunnableImpl 1    T1         Thread t2   new Thread  new RunnableImpl 2    T2         Thread t3   new Thread  new RunnableImpl 3    T3          multiTasksData put  T1   new ArrayList         later get the value and update it      multiTasksData put  T2   new ArrayList          multiTasksData put  T3   new ArrayList          To resolve this problem they have introduced Callable lt V gt Since 1 5 which returns a result and may throw an exception    Single Abstract Method   Both Callable and Runnable interface have a single abstract method  which means they can be used in lambda expressions in java 8   public interface Runnable   public void run       public interface Callable lt Object gt        public Object call   throws Exception       There are a few different ways to delegate tasks for execution to an ExecutorService    execute Runnable task  void crates new thread but not blocks main thread or caller thread as this method return void  submit Callable lt   gt   Future lt   gt   submit Runnable  Future lt   gt  crates new thread and blocks main thread when you are using future get      Example of using Interfaces Runnable  Callable with Executor framework   class CallableTask implements Callable lt Integer gt        private int num   0      public CallableTask int num            this num   num             Override     public Integer call   throws Exception           String threadName   Thread currentThread   getName            System out println threadName       Started Task                for  int i   0  i  lt  5  i                  System out println i           threadName           num               num   num   i              MainThread Wait TillWorkerThreadsComplete sleep 1                     System out println threadName       Completed Task  Final Value      num            return num          class RunnableTask implements Runnable       private int num   0      public RunnableTask int num            this num   num             Override     public void run             String threadName   Thread currentThread   getName            System out println threadName       Started Task                for  int i   0  i  lt  5  i                  System out println i           threadName           num               num   num   i              MainThread Wait TillWorkerThreadsComplete sleep 1                     System out println threadName       Completed Task  Final Value      num           public class MainThread Wait TillWorkerThreadsComplete       public static void main String   args  throws InterruptedException  ExecutionException           System out println  Main Thread start               Instant start   java time Instant now             runnableThreads            callableThreads             Instant end   java time Instant now            Duration between   java time Duration between start  end           System out format  Time taken    02d  02d  04d  n   between toMinutes    between getSeconds    between toMillis               System out println  Main Thread completed                 public static void runnableThreads   throws InterruptedException  ExecutionException           ExecutorService executor   Executors newFixedThreadPool 4           Future lt   gt  f1   executor submit  new RunnableTask 5             Future lt   gt  f2   executor submit  new RunnableTask 2             Future lt   gt  f3   executor submit  new RunnableTask 1                 Waits until pool-thread complete  return null upon successful completion          System out println  F1      f1 get             System out println  F2      f2 get             System out println  F3      f3 get              executor shutdown              public static void callableThreads   throws InterruptedException  ExecutionException           ExecutorService executor   Executors newFixedThreadPool 4           Future lt Integer gt  f1   executor submit  new CallableTask 5             Future lt Integer gt  f2   executor submit  new CallableTask 2             Future lt Integer gt  f3   executor submit  new CallableTask 1                 Waits until pool-thread complete  returns the result          System out println  F1      f1 get             System out println  F2      f2 get             System out println  F3      f3 get              executor shutdown

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As it was already mentioned here Callable is relatively new interface and it was introduced as a part of concurrency package  Both Callable and Runnable can be used with executors  Class Thread  that implements Runnable itself  supports Runnable only   You can still use Runnable with executors  The advantage of Callable that you can send it to executor and immediately get back Future result that will be updated when the execution is finished  The same may be implemented with Runnable  but in this case you have to manage the results yourself  For example you can create results queue that will hold all results  Other thread can wait on this queue and deal with results that arrive

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Difference between Callable and Runnable are following    Callable is introduced in JDK 5 0 but Runnable is introduced in JDK 1 0 Callable has call   method but Runnable has run   method  Callable has call method which returns value but Runnable has run method which doesn t return any value  call method can throw checked exception but run method can t throw checked exception  Callable use submit   method to put in task queue but Runnable use execute   method to put in the task queue

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Let us look at where one would use Runnable and Callable   Runnable and Callable both run on a different thread than the calling thread  But Callable can return a value and Runnable cannot  So where does this really apply   Runnable   If you have a fire and forget task then use Runnable  Put your code inside a Runnable and when the run   method is called  you can perform your task  The calling thread really does not care when you perform your task   Callable   If you are trying to retrieve a value from a task  then use Callable  Now callable on its own will not do the job  You will need a Future that you wrap around your Callable and get your values on future get     Here the calling thread will be blocked till the Future comes back with results which in turn is waiting for Callable s call   method to execute   So think about an interface to a target class where you have both Runnable and Callable wrapped methods defined  The calling class will randomly call your interface methods not knowing which is Runnable and which is Callable  The Runnable methods will execute asynchronously  till a Callable method is called  Here the calling class s thread will block since you are retrieving values from your target class    NOTE   Inside your target class you can make the calls to Callable and Runnable on a single thread executor  making this mechanism similar to a serial dispatch queue  So as long as the caller calls your Runnable wrapped methods the calling thread will execute really fast without blocking  As soon as it calls a Callable wrapped in Future method it will have to block till all the other queued items are executed  Only then the method will return with values  This is a synchronization mechanism

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Callable and Runnable both is similar to each other and can use in implementing thread  In case of implementing Runnable you must implement run   method but in case of callable you must need to implement call   method  both method works in similar ways but callable call   method have more flexibility There is some differences between them    Difference between Runnable and callable as below--   1  The run   method of runnable returns void  means if you want your thread return something which you can use further then you have no choice with Runnable run   method  There is a solution  Callable   If you want to return any thing in form of object then you should use Callable instead of Runnable  Callable interface have method  call    which returns Object   Method signature - Runnable-      public void run       Callable-     public Object call       2  In case of Runnable run   method if any checked exception arises then you must need to handled with try catch block  but in case of Callable call   method you can throw checked exception as below    public Object call   throws Exception      3  Runnable comes from legacy java 1 0 version  but callable came in Java 1 5 version with Executer framework   If you are familiar with Executers then you should use Callable instead of Runnable   Hope you understand

[java] The difference between the Runnable and Callable interfaces in Java

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