Java Thread join method can be used to pause the current thread execution until unless the specified thread is dead. There are three overloaded join functions.
public final void join(): This java thread join method puts the current thread on wait until the thread on which it’s called is dead. If the thread is interrupted, it throws InterruptedException. public final synchronized void join(long millis): This java thread join method is used to wait for the thread on which it’s called to be dead or wait for specified milliseconds. Since thread execution depends on OS implementation, it doesn’t guarantee that the current thread will wait only for given time. public final synchronized void join(long millis, int nanos): This java thread join method is used to wait for thread to die for given milliseconds plus nanoseconds. Here is a simple example showing usage of Thread join methods. The goal of the program is to make sure main is the last thread to finish and third thread starts only when first one is dead.
package com.journaldev.threads;
public class ThreadJoinExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Thread t1 = new Thread(new MyRunnable(), "t1");
Thread t2 = new Thread(new MyRunnable(), "t2");
Thread t3 = new Thread(new MyRunnable(), "t3");
t1.start();
//start second thread after waiting for 2 seconds or if it's dead
try {
t1.join(2000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
t2.start();
//start third thread only when first thread is dead
try {
t1.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
t3.start();
//let all threads finish execution before finishing main thread
try {
t1.join();
t2.join();
t3.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("All threads are dead, exiting main thread");
}
}
class MyRunnable implements Runnable{
@Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("Thread started:::"+Thread.currentThread().getName());
try {
Thread.sleep(4000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Thread ended:::"+Thread.currentThread().getName());
}
}
Output of the above program is:
Thread started:::t1
Thread started:::t2
Thread ended:::t1
Thread started:::t3
Thread ended:::t2
Thread ended:::t3
All threads are dead, exiting main thread
That’s all for a quick roundup on java thread join example.
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Why does t2 start before t1 ends? and t3 start before t2 ends?
- asdqqwe
t2.start(); //start third thread only when first thread is dead try { t1.join(); It should be t2.join() instead of t1.join()
- Anon
Hi, What i need to use for Join thread in ExceutorService?
- manish
I have one doubt, as we can see in the implementation of the join() method , it waits until thread isAlive() method returen true. Now the question is when wait() is called on instance of the thread , it would be disabled for thread scheduling, So if i am calling join() on any thread instance , would it ever get chance to execute the code in run method as it is waiting in a loop over isAlive() method.
- Siddharth
Hi, I have one question in this, if t1 thread execution fails with NullPointer Exception , I need to stop the main thread or we have to capture wich thread is failed. Could you please explains this.
- Eswar
Best Example so Far. Thanks a lot to making join looks so easy.
- Kamal Thakur
Great explanations.This is wat needed…
- pradpalnis
U are fab pankaj.
- kumkum
Simple but informative article:) Keep up the good work bro:) If possible pls add more articles to collection framework internals.
- Gopinath
I have doubt if we called join() without thread refference just like public void m1()throws Exception { join(); } what happened
- guru ghule