Ordering threads to run in the order they were created/started

Question

Hi,

How can i order threads in the order they were instantiated.e.g. how can i make the below program print the numbers 1...10 in order.

public class ThreadOrdering {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        class MyRunnable implements Runnable{
            private final int threadnumber;

            MyRunnable(int threadnumber){
                this.threadnumber = threadnumber;
            }

            public void run() {
                System.out.println(threadnumber);
            }
        }

        for(int i=1; i<=10; i++){
            new Thread(new MyRunnable(i)).start();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Simply put, the scheduling of threads is indeterminate.

http://www.janeg.ca/scjp/threads/scheduling.html

The longer answer is that if you want to do this, you'll need to manually wait for each thread to complete its work before you allow another to run. Note that in this fashion, all the threads will still interleave but they won't accomplish any work until you give the go-ahead. Have a look at the synchronize reserved word.

Answer 2

If you need that fine-grained control, you should not use threads but instead look into using a suitable Executor with Callables or Runnables. See the Executors class for a wide selection.

Answer 3

You can chain them – that is, have the first one start the second, the second start the third, etc. They won't really be running at the same time except for a bit of overlap when each one is started.

public class ThreadOrdering
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        MyRunnable[] threads = new MyRunnable[10];//index 0 represents thread 1;
        for(int i=1; i<=10; i++)
            threads[i] = new MyRunnable(i, threads); 
        new Thread(threads[0].start);  
    }
}

public class MyRunnable extends Runnable
{
    int threadNumber;
    MyRunnable[] threads;

    public MyRunnable(int threadNumber, MyRunnable[] threads)
    {
        this.threadnumber = threadnumber;
        this.threads = threads;
    }

    public void run()
    {
        System.out.println(threadnumber);
        if(threadnumber!=10)
            new Thread(threadnumber).start();
    }
}

Answer 4

"I actually have some parts that i want to execute in parallel, and then once the results are generated, I want to merge the results in certain order." Thanks, this clarifies what you're asking.

You can run them all at once, but the important thing is to get their results in order when the threads finish their computation. Either Thread#join() them in the order in which you want to get their results, or just Thread#join() them all and then iterate through them to get their results.

// Joins the threads back to the main thread in the order we want their results.
public class ThreadOrdering {
    private class MyWorker extends Thread {
        final int input;
        int result;
        MyWorker(final int input) {
            this.input = input;
        }
        @Override
        public void run() {
            this.result = input; // Or some other computation.
        }
        int getResult() { return result; }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
        MyWorker[] workers = new MyWorker[10];
        for(int i=1; i<=10; i++) {
            workers[i] = new MyWorker(i);
            workers[i].start();
        }

        // Assume it may take a while to do the real computation in the threads.

        for (MyWorker worker : workers) {
            // This can throw InterruptedException, but we're just passing that.
            worker.join();
            System.out.println(worker.getResult());
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

A simple solution would be to use an array A of locks (one lock per thread). When thread i begins its executions, it acquires its associated lock A[i]. When it's ready to merge its results, it releases its lock A[i] and waits for locks A[0], A[1], ..., A[i - 1] to be released; then it merges the results.

(In this context, thread i means the i-th launched thread)

I don't know what classes to use in Java, but it must be easy to implement. You can begin reading this.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

Answer 6

Sounds like you want ExecutorService.invokeAll, which will return results from worker threads in a fixed order, even though they may be scheduled in arbitrary order:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
import java.util.concurrent.Future;

public class ThreadOrdering {

    static int NUM_THREADS = 10;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ExecutorService exec = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(NUM_THREADS);
        class MyCallable implements Callable<Integer> {
            private final int threadnumber;

            MyCallable(int threadnumber){
                this.threadnumber = threadnumber;
            }

            public Integer call() {
                System.out.println("Running thread #" + threadnumber);
                return threadnumber;
            }
        }

        List<Callable<Integer>> callables =
            new ArrayList<Callable<Integer>>();
        for(int i=1; i<=NUM_THREADS; i++) {
            callables.add(new MyCallable(i));
        }
        try {
            List<Future<Integer>> results =
                exec.invokeAll(callables);
            for(Future<Integer> result: results) {
                System.out.println("Got result of thread #" + result.get());
            }
        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } catch (ExecutionException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            exec.shutdownNow();
        }
    }

}

Answer 7

Here's a way to do it without having a master thread that waits for each result. Instead, have the worker threads share an object which orders the results.

import java.util.*;

public class OrderThreads {
    public static void main(String... args) {
        Results results = new Results();
        new Thread(new Task(0, "red", results)).start();
        new Thread(new Task(1, "orange", results)).start();
        new Thread(new Task(2, "yellow", results)).start();
        new Thread(new Task(3, "green", results)).start();
        new Thread(new Task(4, "blue", results)).start();
        new Thread(new Task(5, "indigo", results)).start();
        new Thread(new Task(6, "violet", results)).start();
    }
}

class Results {
    private List<String> results = new ArrayList<String>();
    private int i = 0;

    public synchronized void submit(int order, String result) {
        while (results.size() <= order) results.add(null);
        results.set(order, result);
        while ((i < results.size()) && (results.get(i) != null)) {
            System.out.println("result delivered: " + i + " " + results.get(i));
            ++i;
        }
    }
}


class Task implements Runnable {
    private final int order;
    private final String result;
    private final Results results;

    public Task(int order, String result, Results results) {
        this.order = order;
        this.result = result;
        this.results = results;
    }

    public void run() {
        try {
            Thread.sleep(Math.abs(result.hashCode() % 1000)); // simulate a long-running computation
        }
        catch (InterruptedException e) {} // you'd want to think about what to do if interrupted
        System.out.println("task finished: " + order + " " + result);
        results.submit(order, result);
    }
}