Multithreading in java is a process of executing multiple threads simultaneously.
Thread is basically a lightweight sub-process, a smallest unit of processing. Multiprocessing and multithreading, both are used to achieve multitasking.
But we use multithreading than multiprocessing because threads share a common memory area. They don’t allocate separate memory area so saves memory, and context-switching between the threads takes less time than process.
Java Multithreading is mostly used in games, animation etc.
Advantages of Java Multithreading
1) It doesn’t block the user because threads are independent and you can perform multiple operations at the same time.
2) You can perform many operations together so it saves time.
3) Threads are independent so it doesn’t affect other threads if an exception occurs in a single thread.
The main purpose of multithreading is to provide simultaneous execution of two or more parts of a program to maximum utilize the CPU time. A multithreaded program contains two or more parts that can run concurrently. Each such part of a program called thread.
A thread can be in one of the following states (only one state at a given point in time):
NEW – A thread that has not yet started is in this state.
RUNNABLE – A thread executing in the Java virtual machine is in this state.
BLOCKED – A thread that is blocked waiting for a monitor lock is in this state.
WAITING – A thread that is waiting indefinitely for another thread to perform a particular action is in this state.
TIMED_WAITING – A thread that is waiting for another thread to perform an action for up to a specified waiting time is in this state.
TERMINATED – A thread that has exited is in this state.
In the next journal entries, we will be bringing in examples on how to create, implement a multi-threaded environment in your application.