How do I count active thread in a thread group?

This example describe how to get the number of active threads in this thread group. The result might not reflect concurrent activity, and might be affected by the presence of certain system threads.

Due to the inherently imprecise nature of the result, it is recommended that this method only be used for informational purposes.

package org.kodejava.lang;

public class ThreadGroupActiveThread {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ThreadGroup threadGroup = new ThreadGroup("TestThread");

        Thread t1 = new Thread(threadGroup, new Server(), "Server1");
        Thread t2 = new Thread(threadGroup, new Server(), "Server2");
        Thread t3 = new Thread(threadGroup, new Server(), "Server3");
        Thread t4 = new Thread(threadGroup, new Server(), "Server4");

        t1.start();
        t2.start();
        t3.start();
        t4.start();

        // Get an estimate number of active thread of the thread
        // group.
        int activeThread = threadGroup.activeCount();
        System.out.format("Number of active threads of %s is %d %n",
                threadGroup.getName(), activeThread);
    }
}

class Server implements Runnable {
    public void run() {
        System.out.println("Running..");
    }
}

How do I get number of active thread in current thread?

In this example you’ll see how to obtain the number of active thread in the current thread. You can use the Thread.activeCount() method to get this information.

package org.kodejava.lang;

public class CountActiveThread {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Thread t = new Thread(() -> System.out.println("Hello..."));
        t.start();

        // Get the number of active threads in the current thread's
        // thread group.
        int activeThread = Thread.activeCount();
        System.out.format("Number of active threads of %s is %d %n",
                Thread.currentThread().getName(), activeThread);
    }
}

How do I get number of active thread group?

Use method activeGroupCount() of ThreadGroup class to get estimate number of active groups in the thread group and use activeCount() to get estimate number of active threads in a thread group.

package org.kodejava.lang;

public class ActiveGroupCount {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ThreadGroup root = new ThreadGroup("RootGroup");
        ThreadGroup server = new ThreadGroup(root, "ServerGroup");
        ThreadGroup client = new ThreadGroup(root, "ClientGroup");

        Thread t1 = new Thread(server, new ServerThread(), "ServerThread");
        Thread t2 = new Thread(client, new ClientThread(), "ClientThread");

        t1.start();
        t2.start();

        // Get estimate active groups in 'root' thread group
        int activeGroup = root.activeGroupCount();
        System.out.format("Estimated active group in %s is %d%n",
                root.getName(), activeGroup);

        // Get estimate active threads in 'root' thread group
        int activeThread = root.activeCount();
        System.out.format("Estimated active thread in %s is %d%n",
                root.getName(), activeThread);
    }
}

class ServerThread implements Runnable {
    public void run() {
        System.out.println("Running - Server Thread..");
    }
}


class ClientThread implements Runnable {
    public void run() {
        System.out.println("Running - Client Thread..");
    }
}

The example above print the following example output:

Estimated active group in RootGroup is 2
Estimated active thread in RootGroup is 2
Running - Client Thread..
Running - Server Thread..

How do I create a thread synchronized block?

The objective of thread synchronization is to ensure that when several threads want access to a single resource, only one thread can access it at any given time.

You can manage synchronization of your program at method level (synchronized method) or at block level (synchronized block). To make a block of code synchronized you can use the synchronized keyword.

The example below show how you can use the synchronized keyword.

  • Incrementor class
package org.kodejava.lang;

public class Incrementor {
    private int count;

    // A synchronized method example.
    public synchronized void increment(int value) {
        count += value;
        System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getName() +
                ": inc >>> " + count);
    }

    public void decrement(int value) {
        // A synchronized block example the use the current object instance
        // as the monitor object.
        synchronized (this) {
            count -= value;
            System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getName() +
                    ": dec >>> " + count);
        }
    }
}
  • IncrementThread class
package org.kodejava.lang;

public class IncrementThread implements Runnable {
    private final Incrementor incrementor;

    public IncrementThread(Incrementor incrementor) {
        this.incrementor = incrementor;
    }

    public void run() {
        for (int i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
            incrementor.increment(i * 10);
            incrementor.decrement(i * 2);

            try {
                Thread.sleep(1000);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
}
  • IncrementorDemo class
package org.kodejava.lang;

public class IncrementorDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Incrementor incrementor = new Incrementor();

        Thread t1 = new Thread(new IncrementThread(incrementor), "T1");
        Thread t2 = new Thread(new IncrementThread(incrementor), "T2");

        t1.start();
        t2.start();
    }
}

Here an example result printed by the program:

T1: inc >>> 10
T1: dec >>> 8
T2: inc >>> 18
T2: dec >>> 16
T1: inc >>> 36
T1: dec >>> 32
T2: inc >>> 52
T2: dec >>> 48
T1: inc >>> 78
T1: dec >>> 72
T2: inc >>> 102
T2: dec >>> 96
T1: inc >>> 136
T1: dec >>> 128
T2: inc >>> 168
T2: dec >>> 160
T1: inc >>> 210
T1: dec >>> 200
T2: inc >>> 250
T2: dec >>> 240

How do I use join method to wait for threads to finish?

If you want a thread to work until another thread dies, you can join the thread onto the end of the another thread using the join() method. For example, you want thread B only work until thread A completes its work, then you want thread B to join thread A.

package org.kodejava.example.lang;

public class ThreadJoin implements Runnable {
    private int numberOfLoop;

    private ThreadJoin(int numberOfLoop) {
        this.numberOfLoop = numberOfLoop;
    }

    public void run() {
        System.out.println("[" +
            Thread.currentThread().getName() + "] - Running.");

        for (int i = 0; i < this.numberOfLoop; i++) {
            System.out.println("[" +
                Thread.currentThread().getName() + "] " + i);
            try {
                Thread.sleep(100);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

        System.out.println("[" +
            Thread.currentThread().getName() + "] - Done.");
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Thread t1 = new Thread(new ThreadJoin(10), "FirstThread");
        Thread t2 = new Thread(new ThreadJoin(20), "SecondThread");

        try {
            // start t1 and waits for this thread to die before
            // starting the t2 thread.
            t1.start();
            t1.join();

            // start t2
            t2.start();
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}