Thread Step

In this chapter you will learn:

How to use boolean variable to stop a thread

Stop a Java thread

The stop method from Thread is deprecated. In order to stop a thread we have to use a boolean variable or similar logic to exit a thread.

The following code uses the boolean value to control when to stop a thread. The while loop checks a boolean variable. If the condition doesn't meet it will keep loop and in that way we make the thread alive.

class CounterThread extends Thread {
  public boolean stopped = false;
//jav  a 2  s. c  om
  int count = 0;

  public void run() {
    while (!stopped) {
      try {
        sleep(1000);
      } catch (InterruptedException e) {
      }
      System.out.println(count++);
      ;
    }
  }
}

public class Main{
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    CounterThread thread = new CounterThread();
    thread.start();
    try {
      Thread.sleep(10000);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
    }
    thread.stopped = true;
    System.out.println("exit");
  }

}