Threads

In Java, a thread is an independent execution path that can run concurrently with other threads. Threads are used to execute multiple code segments simultaneously to improve the performance of an application. Java provides built-in support for multithreading through the java.lang.Thread class.

To create a new thread, you can create a new instance of the Thread class and override its run() method with the code that you want to execute concurrently. You can then start the thread by calling its start() method. For example:

java

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class MyThread extends Thread {

public void run() {

// Code to be executed concurrently

}

MyThread t = new MyThread();

t.start();

You can also create a thread by implementing the Runnable interface and passing an instance of the class that implements the interface to the Thread constructor. For example:

java

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class MyRunnable implements Runnable {

public void run() {

// Code to be executed concurrently

}

Thread t = new Thread(new MyRunnable());

t.start();

Java provides several methods for controlling thread execution, such as sleep(), yield(), and join(). The sleep() method suspends the execution of the current thread for a specified period of time. The yield() method allows the current thread to voluntarily give up the CPU so that other threads can run. The join() method waits for a thread to complete its execution before continuing.

Thread synchronization is an important aspect of multithreading to avoid race conditions and ensure the correctness of shared data. Java provides the synchronized keyword to ensure that only one thread at a time can execute a block of code. The wait() and notify() methods can be used to allow threads to communicate and coordinate their activities.