Java Threading pass parameter to a thread

Question

Greetings ,

Can anyone suggest to me how I can pass a parameter to a thread. I can't seem to find anything about it! I'm sure this is quite simple.

[Edit] Apologies I was using anonymous classes (Which was the problem)

Hit the refactor button :)

[/Edit]

Answer 1

via constructor of a Runnable or Thread class

class MyThread extends Thread {

    private String to;

    public MyThread(String to) {
        this.to = to;
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
        System.out.println("hello " + to);
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    new MyThread("world!").start();
}

Answer 2

Either write a class that implements Runnable, and pass whatever you need in a suitably defined constructor, or write a class that extends Thread with a suitably defined constructor that calls super() with appropriate parameters.

Answer 3

You can derive a class from Runnable, and during the construction (say) pass the parameter in.

Then launch it using Thread.start(Runnable r);

If you mean whilst the thread is running, then simply hold a reference to your derived object in the calling thread, and call the appropriate setter methods (synchronising where appropriate)

Answer 4

You need to pass the parameter in the constructor to the thread object:

public class MyThread implements Runnable {

   public MyThread(Object parameter) {
       // store parameter for later user
   }

   public void run() {
   }
}

and invoke it thus:

Runnable r = new MyThread(param_value);
new Thread(r).start();

Answer 5

[Edit] In response to question edits here is how it works for Anonymous classes

   final X parameter = ...; // the final is important
   Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable() {
       p = parameter;
       public void run() { 
         ...
       };
   t.run();

[/Edit]

You have a class that extends Thread (or implements Runnable) and a constructor with the parameters you'd like to pass. Then, when you create the new thread, you have to pass in the arguments, and then start the thread, something like this:

Thread t = new MyThread(args...);
t.start();

Runnable is a much better solution than Thread BTW. So I'd prefer:

   public class MyRunnable implements Runnable {
      private X parameter;
      public MyThread(X parameter) {
         this.parameter = parameter;
      }

      public void run() {
      }
   }
   Thread t = new Thread(new MyRunnable(parameter));
   t.start();

This answer is basically the same as this similar question: How to pass parameters to a Thread object

Answer 6

To create a thread you normally create your own implementation of Runnable. Pass the parameters to the thread in the constructor of this class.

class MyThread implements Runnable
{

   private int a;
   private String b;
   private double c;

   public MyThread(int a, String b, double c)
   {
      this.a = a;
      this.b = b;
      this.c = c;
   }

   public void run()
   {
      doSomething(a, b, c);
   }

}

Answer 7

When you create a thread, you need an instance of Runnable. The easiest way to pass in a parameter would be to pass it in as an argument to the constructor:

public class MyRunnable implements Runnable {

    private volatile String myParam;

    public MyRunnable(String myParam){
        this.myParam = myParam;
        ...
    }

    public void run(){
        // do something with myParam here
        ...
    }

}

MyRunnable myRunnable = new myRunnable("Hello World");
new Thread(myRunnable).start();

If you then want to change the parameter while the thread is running, you can simply add a setter method to your runnable class:

public void setMyParam(String value){
    this.myParam = value;
}

Once you have this, you can change the value of the parameter by calling like this:

myRunnable.setMyParam("Goodbye World");

Of course, if you want to trigger an action when the parameter is changed, you will have to use locks, which makes things considerably more complex.

Answer 8

You can either extend the Thread class or the Runnable class and provide parameters as you want. There are simple examples in the docs. I'll port them here:

 class PrimeThread extends Thread {
     long minPrime;
     PrimeThread(long minPrime) {
         this.minPrime = minPrime;
     }

     public void run() {
         // compute primes larger than minPrime
          . . .
     }
 }

 PrimeThread p = new PrimeThread(143);
 p.start();

 class PrimeRun implements Runnable {
     long minPrime;
     PrimeRun(long minPrime) {
         this.minPrime = minPrime;
     }

     public void run() {
         // compute primes larger than minPrime
          . . .
     }
 }


 PrimeRun p = new PrimeRun(143);
 new Thread(p).start();