Run Handler messages in a background thread

Question

I want to run some Runnable in a background thread. I want to use Handler because it\'s convenient for delays. What I mean is

handler.post(runnable, delay);
         


        

Answer 1

Not clear what you mean by Handler.

It sounds like you need a thread that is fed processes to perform by a queue. You would probably benefit from investigating Executors here but here's a simple two-thread pair that communicate through a queue.

public class TwoThreads {
  public static void main(String args[]) throws InterruptedException {
    System.out.println("TwoThreads:Test");
    new TwoThreads().test();
  }
  // The end of the list.
  private static final Integer End = -1;

  static class Producer implements Runnable {
    final Queue queue;

    public Producer(Queue queue) {
      this.queue = queue;
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
      try {
        for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
          queue.add(i);
          Thread.sleep(1);
        }
        // Finish the queue.
        queue.add(End);
      } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
        // Just exit.
      }
    }
  }

  static class Consumer implements Runnable {
    final Queue queue;

    public Consumer(Queue queue) {
      this.queue = queue;
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
      boolean ended = false;
      while (!ended) {
        Integer i = queue.poll();
        if (i != null) {
          ended = i == End;
          System.out.println(i);
        }
      }
    }
  }

  public void test() throws InterruptedException {
    Queue queue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<>();
    Thread pt = new Thread(new Producer(queue));
    Thread ct = new Thread(new Consumer(queue));
    // Start it all going.
    pt.start();
    ct.start();
    // Wait for it to finish.
    pt.join();
    ct.join();
  }
}