Chapter 9 Horstmanns Book Multithreading Hwajung Lee ITEC

Chapter 9 (Horstmann’s Book) Multithreading Hwajung Lee ITEC 324 Principle of CS III

Chapter Topics Thread Basics Thread Synchronization

Threads Thread: program unit that is executed independently Multiple Threads: Program units what can be executed in parallel. Multiple threads run simultaneously. When executes ▪ Multiprocessor computers: threads actually run in parallel OR ▪ Illusion of threads running in parallel. ▪ That is, Virtual machine executes each thread for short time slice. Thread scheduler activates, deactivates threads.

Threads and the Runnable Interface Type (1) How to implement Running Threads Define class that implements Runnable interface. Runnable has one method. void run() Place thread action into run() method Construct an object of the class which implements the Runnable Interface Construct an object of Thread class start() thread

Threads and the Runnable Interface Type (2) public class My. Runnable implements Runnable { public void run() { } thread action }. . . Runnable r = new My. Runnable(); Thread t = new Thread(r); t. start();

Thread Example Run two threads in parallel Each thread prints 10 greetings for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) { System. out. println(i + ": " + greeting); Thread. sleep(100); } After each printout, sleep for 100 milliseconds All threads should occasionally yield control sleep() throws Interrupted. Exception

Thread Example (1) Ch 9/greeting/Greeting. Producer. java Ch 9/greeting/Thread. Tester. java

Thread Example Sample Output (Note: output not exactly interleaved. ) 1: Hello, World! 1: Goodbye, World! 2: Hello, World! 2: Goodbye, World! 3: Hello, World! 3: Goodbye, World! 4: Hello, World! 4: Goodbye, World! 5: Hello, World! 5: Goodbye, World! 6: Hello, World! 6: Goodbye, World! 7: Hello, World! 7: Goodbye, World! 8: Hello, World! 9: Goodbye, World! 9: Hello, World! 10: Goodbye, World! 10: Hello, World! ☞ The thread scheduler gives no guarantee about the order in which threads are executed. Moreover, there will always be slight variations in running times, especially when calling operating system services (such as input and output). Thus, you should expect that the order in which each thread gains control appears to be somewhat random.

Starting Two Threads

Thread States Each thread has thread state priority Thread states: new ▪ before start() called runnable blocked dead ▪ after run() method exits

Blocked Thread State Reasons for entering the blocked state: Sleeping Waiting for I/O Waiting to acquire lock (later) Waiting for condition (later) Unblocks only if the reason for the blocking goes away

Scheduling Threads Scheduler activates a new (next) thread if a thread has completed its time slice a thread has blocked itself a thread with higher priority has become runnable Scheduler determines a new thread to run by looking only at all runnable threads, and picking one with the highest priority value. (The priority values are system-dependant and not adjustable by an application programmer. ) OR Picking one at random or using a round-robin scheme to gives each thread a chance.

Terminating Threads (1) Normal way to terminate a thread Thread terminates when run() exits However, you sometimes need to terminate running thread (Ex) you may have several threads attempting to find a solution to a problem. As soon as the first one has succeeded, you can terminate the other ones.

Thread Synchronization Example Two producers, one consumer Each producer thread inserts 100 greetings into the same queue. Each consumer thread removes all of the greetings in the queue.

Producer Thread In the try{ } block int i = 1; while (i <= greeting. Count) { if (!queue. is. Full()) { queue. add(i + ": " + greeting); i++; } Thread. sleep((int)(Math. random() * DELAY)); }

Consumer Thread In the try{ } block int i = 1; while (i <= greeting. Count) { if (!queue. is. Empty()) { Object greeting = queue. remove(); System. out. println(greeting); i++; } Thread. sleep((int)(Math. random() * DELAY)); }

Expected Program Output 1: Hello, World! 1: Goodbye, World! 2: Hello, World! 3: Hello, World!. . . 99: Goodbye, World! 100: Goodbye, World!

Why is Output Corrupted? Sometimes, the program will corrupt the queue and not work correctly. The consumer thread gets stuck and won’t complete. Even though 200 greetings were inserted in the queue, it can’t retrieve them all. It may complete, but print the same greetings repeatedly. Can you spot the problem? Can see problem better when turning debugging on queue. set. Debug(true); Ch 9/queue 1/Thread. Tester. java Ch 9/queue 1/Producer. java Ch 9/queue 1/Consumer. java Ch 9/queue 1/Bounded. Queue. java

Race Condition occurs if the effect of multiple threads on shared data depends on the order in which the threads are scheduled. Multiple threads, in their race to complete their respective task, rush to win the race.

Race Condition Scenario First thread calls add and executes elements[tail] = an. Object; First thread at end of time slice Second thread calls add and executes elements[tail] = an. Object; tail++; Second thread at end of time slice First thread executes tail++;

Resolve a Race Condition To fix the race conditions, you need to ensure that only one thread manipulates the queue at any given moment.

Locks Locking Mechanism Thread can temporarily acquire ownership of a lock When another thread tries to acquire same lock, it is blocked. When first thread releases the lock, other threads are unblocked and try again Two kinds of locks Objects of Reentrant. Lock class or another class implementing java. util. concurrent. Lock interface type in java. util. concurrent. locks package. Locks that are built into every Java object

Reentrant Locks a. Lock = new Reentrant. Lock(); . . . a. Lock. lock(); try { protected code } finally { a. Lock. unlock(); } ☞ The finally clause ensures that the lock is unlocked even when an exception is thrown in the protected code.