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

Question

How do you determine if a thread is running?

Answer 1

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