Confused on Java ThreadPool

Question

It is my first time to use Java Thread Pool for my new project, after I came across this link http://www.javacodegeeks.com/2013/01/java-thread-pool-example-using-executors-and-t

Answer 1

Bad example! The class called WorkerThread is not a thread, it is a "task".

The threads are hidden inside the ExecutorService. The example creates an ExecutorService with five "worker" threads, it creates ten tasks, it asks the executor service to "perform" them, and then finally, it waits for all of the tasks to be completed. It's totally up to the ExecutorService to decide how and when and in which worker thread to perform each task.

Another lesser problem with the example is how the main thread waits after asking the executor service to shut down. It spins, using CPU resources that maybe could have been used by one or more of the workers (depends on how many CPUs the host has available to run the various threads.) The wait loop should call Thread.yield() which gives up the main thread's time slice to any other runnable thread each time it is called.

Answer 2

This is confusing because the Runnables are named WorkerThread, but they don't extend java.lang.Thread, they're just objects that implement Runnable. Implementing Runnable lets you specify a task that needs to be executed without having to instantiate an actual Thread object. The only threads created in your example are the main thread and the ones created by the Executor.

Note that, even if you change this code to make WorkerThread extend Thread, as long as the code doesn't call start on them it wouldn't result in more threads actually running. Constructing a thread object involves some things like checking with the Security Manager and initializing threadlocals, but it doesn't actually do anything at the OS-level to allocate a thread. As far as the Executor is concerned they're just Runnables, it would execute them using the threadpool's threads.