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I want to know(print) state of one thread from another thread... can we do that?

I want to create two Threads.One to display something and after that it will go to Wait state.Then the second thread should start executing and it should print the state of the first thread(i.e waiting state) and after displaying it should notify and the first Thread should continue executing.

I have created a small program for you. Please check if it meets your requirement. We can beautify the code later. Please elaborate your requirements more, if it is not meeting your expectations.
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyThread1 th1 = new MyThread1();
MyThread2 th2 = new MyThread2();
//Allow thread 1 to run first
Shareable shareable = new Shareable();
shareable.threadToRun = th1.getName();
th1.setAnotherThread(th2);
th1.setShareable(shareable);
th2.setAnotherThread(th1);
th2.setShareable(shareable);
th1.start();
th2.start();
}
}
class Shareable {
volatile String threadToRun;
}
class MyThread1 extends Thread {
private Shareable shareable;
private Thread anotherThread;
#Override
public void run() {
synchronized (shareable) {
waitForTurn();
System.out.println(getName() + " I am doing first task. After that wait for next Thread to finish.");
shareable.threadToRun = anotherThread.getName();
shareable.notifyAll();
waitForTurn();
System.out.println(getName() + " I am doing next task now.");
}
}
private void waitForTurn(){
if(!shareable.threadToRun.equals(getName())){
try {
shareable.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
public void setShareable(Shareable shareable){
this.shareable = shareable;
}
public void setAnotherThread(Thread anotherThread){
this.anotherThread = anotherThread;
}
}
class MyThread2 extends Thread {
private Shareable shareable;
private Thread anotherThread;
#Override
public void run() {
synchronized (shareable) {
waitForTurn();
System.out.println(getName() + " I am doing task now. Another Thread " + anotherThread.getName() + " is in state " + anotherThread.getState());
shareable.threadToRun = anotherThread.getName();
shareable.notifyAll();
}
}
private void waitForTurn(){
if(!shareable.threadToRun.equals(getName())){
try {
shareable.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
public void setShareable(Shareable shareable){
this.shareable = shareable;
}
public void setAnotherThread(Thread anotherThread){
this.anotherThread = anotherThread;
}
}
Here is the output:
Thread-0 I am doing first task. After that wait for next Thread to finish.
Thread-1 I am doing task now. Another Thread Thread-0 is in state WAITING
Thread-0 I am doing next task now.

Inter thread Communication-Java

I am new to java thread. I am unable to give the lock back to the thread from the main thread in the following code. I am getting the undesired output because i am unable to unlock the thread. I want thread to increment the value using thread (goes to wait state after that) and after printing the value, release the lock to print the next incremented value.
class Foo implements Runnable
{
public volatile int value=0,i=0;
Thread t=new Thread();
public void method(Thread t)
{
this.t = t;
}
#Override
public synchronized void run()
{
while(i<3)
{
value++;//receive and process ACK
i++;
try
{
System.out.println("im thread here");
wait();
System.out.println("passed wait");
}
catch(InterruptedException ex){
}
System.out.println("im notified");
}//while
//}//sync
}//run method
public int getValue()
{
try
{
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
return value;
}
}//class foo
public class ThreadTest
{
public static int value1,times=0;
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Foo foo=new Foo();
Thread t=new Thread(foo);
foo.method(t);
t.start();
while(times<3)
{
synchronized(t)
{
value1=foo.getValue();
times++;
System.out.println(value1);
System.out.println(t.getState());
try
{
t.notify();
System.out.println("Notify is reached");
}
catch(IllegalMonitorStateException ex)
{
System.out.println("Thread is blocked");
}
}//sync
}//while
}//main
}//mclasss

Are you trying to do something like this? If you really must use wait/notify & want to use Runnable.
I added a wait block, otherwise the main thread may finish before the background thread increments the value.
class Foo implements Runnable {
public volatile int value = 0, i = 0;
private Thread backgroundThread;
public void setThread(Thread thread) {
this.backgroundThread = thread;
}
#Override
public void run() {
synchronized (backgroundThread) {
while (i < 2) {
value++;
i++;
backgroundThread.notify();
try {
System.out.println("background thread wait start");
backgroundThread.wait();
System.out.println("background thread notified");
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
public int getValue() {
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return value;
}
}
public class ThreadTest {
public static int value1, times = 0;
public static void main(String[] args) {
Foo foo = new Foo();
final Thread thread = new Thread(foo);
foo.setThread(thread);
thread.start();
while (times < 3) {
synchronized (thread) {
value1 = foo.getValue();
times++;
System.out.println(value1);
System.out.println(thread.getState());
thread.notify();
try {
thread.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
}
Or you can extend thread:
class BackgroundThread extends Thread {
public volatile int value = 0, i = 0;
#Override
public synchronized void run() {
while (i < 2) {
value++;
i++;
notify();
try {
System.out.println("background thread wait start");
wait();
System.out.println("background thread notified");
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
public int getValue() {
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return value;
}
}
public class ThreadTest {
public static int value1, times = 0;
public static void main(String[] args) {
BackgroundThread backgroundThread = new BackgroundThread();
backgroundThread.start();
while (times < 3) {
synchronized (backgroundThread) {
value1 = backgroundThread.getValue();
times++;
System.out.println(value1);
System.out.println(backgroundThread.getState());
backgroundThread.notify();
try {
backgroundThread.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
}

It is very unclear what you really want to do but we will assume here that you want to run a thread in the background which should run only when its spawner (let's say the main thread) allows it to.
The JDK has several tools for this already, no need to rely on the low level wait() and notify{,All}() methods.
One example of such a primitive is a CountDownLatch. It is a one-use entity which allows you to specify the times a given set of threads should countDown() it before any threads .await()ing for them can trigger.
In combination with the multithread handling classes which appeared as far back as Java 1.5, this means you could do something like this:
// Implementation of a Runnable waiting for the counter to trigger
public final class MyWaitingClass
implements Runnable
{
private final CountDownLatch latch;
public MyWaitingClass(final CountDownLatch latch)
{
this.latch = latch;
}
#Override
public void run()
{
try {
latch.await();
// do whatever is necessary
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// Argh; interrupted before the latch was released
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
}
}
// In the main class:
final ExecutorService executor = Executors.newSingleThreadPool();
final CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
final Runnable runnable = new MyWaitingClass(latch);
executor.submit(runnable);
// do whatever is needed; then:
latch.countDown();

Printing "Hello" and "world" multiple times using two threads in java

Assume that one thread prints "Hello" and another prints "World". I have done it successfully for one time, as follows:
package threading;
public class InterThread {
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyThread mt=new MyThread();
mt.start();
synchronized(mt){
System.out.println("Hello");
try {
mt.wait();
i++;
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
class MyThread extends Thread{
public void run(){
synchronized(this){
System.out.println("World!");
notify();
}
}
}
How do I do it for multiple time printing, say for 5 times? I tried putting for loop around the synchronized block, but of no use.

Here being two interdependent threads, we need two synchronizing objects. they could be one of many things. one integer, another object; one Boolean another object; both object; both semaphores and so on. the synchronization technique could be either Monitor or Semaphore any way you like, but they have to be two.
I have modified your code to use semaphore instead of Monitor. The Semaphore works more transparently. You can see the acquire and release happening. Monitors are even higher constructs. Hence Synchronized works under the hood.
If you are comfortable with the following code, then you can convert it to use Monitors instead.
import java.util.concurrent.Semaphore;
public class MainClass {
static Semaphore hello = new Semaphore(1);
static Semaphore world = new Semaphore(0);
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
MyThread mt=new MyThread();
mt.hello = hello;
mt.world = world;
mt.start();
for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
hello.acquire(); //wait for it
System.out.println("Hello");
world.release(); //go say world
}
}
}
class MyThread extends Thread{
Semaphore hello, world;
public void run(){
try {
for(int i = 0; i<5; i++) {
world.acquire(); // wait-for it
System.out.println(" World!");
hello.release(); // go say hello
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

public class ThreadSeq {
Object hello = new Object();
Object world = new Object();
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
for(int i=0; i<6;i++){
Runnable helloTask = new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run(){
new ThreadSeq().printHello();
}
};
Runnable worldTask = new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run(){
new ThreadSeq().printWorld();
}
};
Thread t1 = new Thread(helloTask);
Thread t2 = new Thread(worldTask);
t1.start();
t1.join();
t2.start();
t2.join();
}
}
public void printHello(){
synchronized (hello) {
System.out.println("Hello");
}
}
public void printWorld(){
synchronized (world) {
System.out.println("World");
}
}
}

The goal here is to synchronize threads so that when one is done it notify the other. If I have to make it, it would be 2 threads executing the same code with different data. Each thread has its own data ("Hello" and true to T1, "World" and false to t2), and share a variable turn plus a separate lock object.
while(/* I need to play*/){
synchronized(lock){
if(turn == myturn){
System.out.println(mymessage);
turn = !turn; //switch turns
lock.signal();
}
else{
lock.wait();
}
}
}

Before you start trying to get it to work five times you need to make sure it works once!
Your code is not guaranteed to always print Hello World! - the main thread could be interrupted before taking the lock of mt (note that locking on thread objects is generally not a good idea).
MyThread mt=new MyThread();
mt.start();
\\ interrupted here
synchronized(mt){
...
One approach, that will generalise to doing this many times, is to use an atomic boolean
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
public class InterThread {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int sayThisManyTimes = 5;
AtomicBoolean saidHello = new AtomicBoolean(false);
MyThread mt=new MyThread(sayThisManyTimes,saidHello);
mt.start();
for(int i=0;i<sayThisManyTimes;i++){
while(saidHello.get()){} // spin doing nothing!
System.out.println("Hello ");
saidHello.set(true);
}
}
}
class MyThread extends Thread{
private final int sayThisManyTimes;
private final AtomicBoolean saidHello;
public MyThread(int say, AtomicBoolean said){
super("MyThread");
sayThisManyTimes = say;
saidHello = said;
}
public void run(){
for(int i=0;i<sayThisManyTimes;i++){
while(!saidHello.get()){} // spin doing nothing!
System.out.println("World!");
saidHello.set(false);
}
}
}

This is in C:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <pthread.h>
pthread_mutex_t hello_lock, world_lock;
void printhello()
{
while(1) {
pthread_mutex_lock(&hello_lock);
printf("Hello ");
pthread_mutex_unlock(&world_lock);
}
}
void printworld()
{
while(1) {
pthread_mutex_lock(&world_lock);
printf("World ");
pthread_mutex_unlock(&hello_lock);
}
}
int main()
{
pthread_t helloThread, worldThread;
pthread_create(&helloThread,NULL,(void *)printhello,NULL);
pthread_create(&helloThread,NULL,(void *)printhello,NULL);
pthread_join(helloThread);
pthread_join(worldThread);
return 0;
}

There are two thread and both has its own data ("Hello" and true to ht, "World" and false to wt), and share a variable objturn.
public class HelloWorldBy2Thread {
public static void main(String[] args) {
PrintHelloWorld hw = new PrintHelloWorld();
HelloThread ht = new HelloThread(hw);
WorldThread wt = new WorldThread(hw);
ht.start();
wt.start();
}
}
public class HelloThread extends Thread {
private PrintHelloWorld phw;
private String hello;
public HelloThread(PrintHelloWorld hw) {
phw = hw;
hello = "Hello";
}
#Override
public void run(){
for(int i=0;i<10;i++)
phw.print(hello,true);
}
}
public class WorldThread extends Thread {
private PrintHelloWorld phw;
private String world;
public WorldThread(PrintHelloWorld hw) {
phw = hw;
world = "World";
}
#Override
public void run(){
for(int i=0;i<10;i++)
phw.print(world,false);
}
}
public class PrintHelloWorld {
private boolean objturn=true;
public synchronized void print(String str, boolean thturn){
while(objturn != thturn){
try {
wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
System.out.print(str+" ");
objturn = ! thturn;
notify();
}
}

In simple way we can do this using wait() and notify() without creating any extra object.
public class MainHelloWorldThread {
public static void main(String[] args) {
HelloWorld helloWorld = new HelloWorld();
Thread t1 = new Thread(() -> {
try {
helloWorld.printHello();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
});
Thread t2 = new Thread(() -> {
try {
helloWorld.printWorld();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
});
// printHello() will be called first
t1.setPriority(Thread.MAX_PRIORITY);
t1.start();
t2.start();
}
}
class HelloWorld {
public void printHello() throws InterruptedException {
synchronized (this) {
// Infinite loop
while (true) {
// Sleep for 500ms
Thread.sleep(500);
System.out.print("Hello ");
wait();
// This thread will wait to call notify() from printWorld()
notify();
// This notify() will release lock on printWorld() thread
}
}
}
public void printWorld() throws InterruptedException {
synchronized (this) {
// Infinite loop
while (true) {
// Sleep for 100ms
Thread.sleep(100);
System.out.println("World");
notify();
// This notify() will release lock on printHello() thread
wait();
// This thread will wait to call notify() from printHello()
}
}
}
}

What if I am waiting on an object which is not Runnable?

Consider the following code :-
public class UsingWait1{
public static void main(String... aaa){
CalculateSeries r = new CalculateSeries();
Thread t = new Thread(r);
t.start();
synchronized(r){
try{
r.wait(); //Here I am waiting on an object which is Runnable. So from its run method, it can notify me (from inside a synchronized block).
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println("Interrupted");
}
}
System.out.println(r.total);
try{
Thread.sleep(1);
} catch (InterruptedException e){
System.out.println("Interrupted");
}
System.out.println(r.total);
}
}
class CalculateSeries implements Runnable{
int total;
public void run(){
synchronized(this){
for(int i = 1; i <= 10000; i++){
total += i;
}
notify(); // Line 1 .. Notify Exactly one of all the threads waiting on this instance of the class to wake up
}
}
}
Here I am waiting on CalculateSeries which is Runnable. So I can notify the waiting thread from the run() method of CalculateSeries.
But now, consider the following code where I am waiting on an object which is not Runnable.
public class WaitNotOnThread{
public static void main(String... aaa){
NotRunnable nr = new NotRunnable();
IAmRunnable r = new IAmRunnable(nr);
new Thread(r).start();
synchronized(nr){
try{
nr.wait();
} catch(InterruptedException e){
System.out.println("Wait interrupted");
}
System.out.println("After being notified within synchronized");
}
System.out.println("After synchronized");
}
}
class IAmRunnable implements Runnable{
NotRunnable nr;
IAmRunnable(NotRunnable nr){
this.nr = nr;
}
public void run(){
synchronized(nr){
try{
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch(InterruptedException e){
System.out.println("Sleeping Interrupted :( ");
}
notify(); // Line 2
}
}
}
class NotRunnable{
}
Here I get an IllegalMonitorStateException at Line 2. I am waiting on the same instance of the object (which is not Runnable) while calling both, wait() as well as notify(). Then what is the problem?
Can someone also give some scenarios where it would be useful to wait on an object which is not Runnable??

Wait need not be on Runnable. That is why notify() is on Object and not on Runnable. I guess that helps in all cases we want to avoid busy wait.
The problem seems to be the synchronized() is on nr, and the notify is called on different object. Also synchronized should be on final variables.
class IAmRunnable implements Runnable {
final NotRunnable nr;
IAmRunnable( final NotRunnable nr) {
this.nr = nr;
}
public void run() {
synchronized (nr) {
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println("Sleeping Interrupted :( ");
}
nr.notify(); // Line 2
}
}
}

Control thread through button

We require a piece of code to control a thread. For example, use three buttons like start, stop and pause, press one of them and perform the action against it. Like press start then start the thread, press stop actually stops thread and pause perform pause action respectively.

Starting a thread is simple with Thread.start(). Stopping a thread can be as simple as setting a flag that is checked asychronously in the run method, but may need to include a call to Thread.interrupt(). Pausing a thread is more problematic, but could also be done using a flag that cauases the run method to yield instead of process. Here is some (untested) code:
class MyThread extends Thread {
private final static int STATE_RUN = 0, STATE_PAUSE = 2, STATE_STOP = 3;
private int _state;
MyThread() {
_state = STATE_RUN;
}
public void run() {
int stateTemp;
synchronized(this) {
stateTemp = _state;
}
while (stateTemp != STATE_STOP) {
switch (stateTemp) {
case STATE_RUN:
// perform processing
break;
case STATE_PAUSE:
yield();
break;
}
synchronized(this) {
stateTemp = _state;
}
}
// cleanup
}
public synchronized void stop() {
_state = STATE_STOP;
// may need to call interrupt() if the processing calls blocking methods.
}
public synchronized void pause() {
_state = STATE_PAUSE;
// may need to call interrupt() if the processing calls blocking methods.
// perhaps set priority very low with setPriority(MIN_PRIORITY);
}
public synchronized void unpause() {
_state = STATE_RUN;
// perhaps restore priority with setPriority(somePriority);
// may need to re-establish any blocked calls interrupted by pause()
}
}
As you can see it can quite quickly get complex depending on what you are doing in the thread.

I would like to add on Richard's answer to address a few issues:
Needless cycles when paused
Needless extra cycle when state changed
yield() used where wait() needed
Single instance
Stopping the thread waits for the thread to finish
This is my altered code:
class MyThread extends Thread {
private final static int STATE_RUN = 0, STATE_PAUSE = 2, STATE_STOP = 3;
private int _state;
private static MyThread thread;
public static MyThread getInstance() {
if (thread == null || !thread.isAlive()) {
thread = new MyThread();
}
return thread;
}
private MyThread() {
_state = STATE_RUN;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyThread t = MyThread.getInstance();
try {
t.start();
Thread.sleep(500);
t.pause();
Thread.sleep(500);
t.unpause();
Thread.sleep(500);
t.end();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// ignore; this is just an example
}
}
public void run() {
int i = 0;
while (_state != STATE_STOP) {
if (_state == STATE_PAUSE) {
System.out.println(this + " paused");
synchronized (this) {
try {
this.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
if (_state == STATE_STOP) {
break;
}
// this is where the actual processing happens
try {
// slow output down for this example
Thread.sleep(100);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// state change handled next cycle
}
System.out.println(this + " cycle " + i);
i++;
}
System.out.println(this + " finished");
// cleanup
}
public synchronized void end() {
_state = STATE_STOP;
try {
this.interrupt();
this.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public synchronized void pause() {
_state = STATE_PAUSE;
}
public synchronized void unpause() {
_state = STATE_RUN;
synchronized (this) {
this.notify();
}
}
}