What does java.lang.Thread.interrupt() do?

Question

Could you explain what java.lang.Thread.interrupt() does when invoked?

Answer 1

For completeness, in addition to the other answers, if the thread is interrupted before it blocks on Object.wait(..) or Thread.sleep(..) etc., this is equivalent to it being interrupted immediately upon blocking on that method, as the following example shows.

public class InterruptTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Thread.currentThread().interrupt();

        printInterrupted(1);

        Object o = new Object();
        try {
            synchronized (o) {
                printInterrupted(2);
                System.out.printf("A Time %d\n", System.currentTimeMillis());
                o.wait(100);
                System.out.printf("B Time %d\n", System.currentTimeMillis());
            }
        } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
            System.out.printf("WAS interrupted\n");
        }
        System.out.printf("C Time %d\n", System.currentTimeMillis());

        printInterrupted(3);

        Thread.currentThread().interrupt();

        printInterrupted(4);

        try {
            System.out.printf("D Time %d\n", System.currentTimeMillis());
            Thread.sleep(100);
            System.out.printf("E Time %d\n", System.currentTimeMillis());
        } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
            System.out.printf("WAS interrupted\n");
        }
        System.out.printf("F Time %d\n", System.currentTimeMillis());

        printInterrupted(5);

        try {
            System.out.printf("G Time %d\n", System.currentTimeMillis());
            Thread.sleep(100);
            System.out.printf("H Time %d\n", System.currentTimeMillis());
        } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
            System.out.printf("WAS interrupted\n");
        }
        System.out.printf("I Time %d\n", System.currentTimeMillis());

    }
    static void printInterrupted(int n) {
        System.out.printf("(%d) Am I interrupted? %s\n", n,
                Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted() ? "Yes" : "No");
    }
}

Output:

$ javac InterruptTest.java 

$ java -classpath "." InterruptTest
(1) Am I interrupted? Yes
(2) Am I interrupted? Yes
A Time 1399207408543
WAS interrupted
C Time 1399207408543
(3) Am I interrupted? No
(4) Am I interrupted? Yes
D Time 1399207408544
WAS interrupted
F Time 1399207408544
(5) Am I interrupted? No
G Time 1399207408545
H Time 1399207408668
I Time 1399207408669

Implication: if you loop like the following, and the interrupt occurs at the exact moment when control has left Thread.sleep(..) and is going around the loop, the exception is still going to occur. So it is perfectly safe to rely on the InterruptedException being reliably thrown after the thread has been interrupted:

while (true) {
    try {
        Thread.sleep(10);
    } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
        break;
    }
}