[size=large]Subclass or Runnable?
There are no rules about which of the two methods that is the best. Both methods works. Personally though, I prefer implementing Runnable, and handing an instance of the implementation to a Thread instance. When having the Runnable's executed by a thread pool it is easy to queue up the Runnable instances until a thread from the pool is idle. This is a little harder to do with Thread subclasses.
Sometimes you may have to implement Runnable as well as subclass Thread. For instance, if creating a subclass of Thread that can execute more than one Runnable. This is typically the case when implementing a thread pool.[/size]
Note that even if the threads are started in sequence (1, 2, 3 etc.) they may not execute sequentially, meaning thread 1 may not be the first thread to write its name to System.out. This is because the threads are in principle executing in parallel and not sequentially. The JVM and/or operating system determines the order in which the threads are executed. This order does not have to be the same order in which they were started.
There are no rules about which of the two methods that is the best. Both methods works. Personally though, I prefer implementing Runnable, and handing an instance of the implementation to a Thread instance. When having the Runnable's executed by a thread pool it is easy to queue up the Runnable instances until a thread from the pool is idle. This is a little harder to do with Thread subclasses.
Sometimes you may have to implement Runnable as well as subclass Thread. For instance, if creating a subclass of Thread that can execute more than one Runnable. This is typically the case when implementing a thread pool.[/size]
public class ThreadExample {
public static void main(String[] args){
System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getName());
for(int i=0; i<10; i++){
new Thread("" + i){
public void run(){
System.out.println("Thread: " + getName() + " running");
}
}.start();
}
}
}
Note that even if the threads are started in sequence (1, 2, 3 etc.) they may not execute sequentially, meaning thread 1 may not be the first thread to write its name to System.out. This is because the threads are in principle executing in parallel and not sequentially. The JVM and/or operating system determines the order in which the threads are executed. This order does not have to be the same order in which they were started.