Java Thread join method can be used to pause the current thread execution until unless the specified thread is dead. There are three overloaded join functions.
Java Thread join
public final void join(): This java thread join method puts the current thread on wait until the thread on which it’s called is dead. If the thread is interrupted, it throws InterruptedException. public final synchronized void join(long millis): This java thread join method is used to wait for the thread on which it’s called to be dead or wait for specified milliseconds. Since thread execution depends on OS implementation, it doesn’t guarantee that the current thread will wait only for given time. public final synchronized void join(long millis, int nanos): This java thread join method is used to wait for thread to die for given milliseconds plus nanoseconds. Here is a simple example showing usage of Thread join methods. The goal of the program is to make sure main is the last thread to finish and third thread starts only when first one is dead.
package com.journaldev.threads;
public class ThreadJoinExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Thread t1 = new Thread(new MyRunnable(), "t1");
Thread t2 = new Thread(new MyRunnable(), "t2");
Thread t3 = new Thread(new MyRunnable(), "t3");
t1.start();
//start second thread after waiting for 2 seconds or if it's dead
try {
t1.join(2000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
t2.start();
//start third thread only when first thread is dead
try {
t1.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
t3.start();
//let all threads finish execution before finishing main thread
try {
t1.join();
t2.join();
t3.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("All threads are dead, exiting main thread");
}
}
class MyRunnable implements Runnable{
@Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("Thread started:::"+Thread.currentThread().getName());
try {
Thread.sleep(4000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("Thread ended:::"+Thread.currentThread().getName());
}
}
Output of the above program is:
Thread started:::t1
Thread started:::t2
Thread ended:::t1
Thread started:::t3
Thread ended:::t2
Thread ended:::t3
All threads are dead, exiting main thread
That’s all for a quick roundup on java thread join example.
Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.
About the author(s)
While we believe that this content benefits our community, we have not yet thoroughly reviewed it. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please let us know by clicking the “report an issue“ button at the bottom of the tutorial.
Become a contributor for community
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
DigitalOcean Documentation
Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.
Resources for startups and SMBs
The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.
The developer cloud
Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.
Get started for free
Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*
*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.
Here: //let all threads finish execution before finishing main thread try { t1.join(); t2.join(); t3.join(); Do you really need to check if thread 1 as ended ? Isn’t T1 suppoed to end before T3 starts in code ? Maybe I am overlooking something.
- Rajesh
It’s just an example code to understand the Thread join() method. Yes you are right, since t1.join() is already called, it’s dead so we can just call join methods on t2 and t3.
- Pankaj
Line 10: t1 starts Line 14: main thread waits till t1 ends Line 19: t1 ended, main thread starts t2 Line 23: TYPO?? t2.join() will cause main thread to wait till t2 ends Line 28: t2 ended, main thread starts t3 Line 32: no use of it Line 33: no use of it Line 34: main thread will wait till t3 ends
- Amitabha Roy
Good one
- peng li
Hi I have one question like Why sleep and yield methods are static?
- swamy
If you will look into the sleep() and yield() method details, they work on the current executing thread, so there is no point in calling these methods on some other threads that are not executing i.e in wait state. That’s why these methods are made static so that when this method is called statically, it works on the current executing thread and avoid confusion to the programmers who might think that they can invoke these methods on some non-running threads. It’s a very interesting question and that’s why it’s part of https://www.journaldev.com/1162/java-multi-threading-concurrency-interview-questions-with-answers
- Pankaj
Thread started : t1 time : Fri Jan 10 18:49:30 IST 2014 Thread started : t2 time : Fri Jan 10 18:49:32 IST 2014 Thread ended : t1 time : Fri Jan 10 18:49:34 IST 2014 Thread started : t3 time : Fri Jan 10 18:49:34 IST 2014 Thread ended : t2 time : Fri Jan 10 18:49:36 IST 2014 Thread ended : t3 time : Fri Jan 10 18:49:38 IST 2014
- Preetam
t1 waits only for 2 seconds before t2 starts
- Preetam
m1 m1 main end t1 t1 t1 t1 t2 t2 t2 t2 t3 t3 t3 t3 Thread started:::t1 Thu May 07 11:00:09 CST 2015 Thread started:::t2 Thu May 07 11:00:11 CST 2015 Thread ended:::t1 Thu May 07 11:00:13 CST 2015 Thread started:::t3 Thu May 07 11:00:13 CST 2015 Thread ended:::t2 Thu May 07 11:00:15 CST 2015 Thread ended:::t3 Thu May 07 11:00:17 CST 2015 All threads are dead, exiting main thread
- Issac
There maybe a small mistake about the description of the 3 overloaded functions. They are all “public final void” method in Java doc: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Thread.html. Any special thought add “synchronized” here? BTW, I found this post from another one given by you: Multi-Threading and Concurrency Interview Questions with Answers. It helped me a lot for understanding java thread. Thanks a lot!
- LinTao
The method syntax is correct, please check the Thread class source code.
- Pankaj
I’ve just check the Harmony code. FYI, the 3 methods are declared as this: public final synchronized void join() throws InterruptedException public final void join(long timeoutInMilliseconds) throws InterruptedException public final synchronized void join(long timeoutInMilliseconds, int nanos) throws InterruptedException
- LinTao
Would you explain to me: when we use join() method in this example, we say to main method (but not some other thread) to wait until some thread died or some time passed ? - so every call join() we do from main method or we call it from the thread we recently started ? And on the line 32 “t1.join();” - if we comment that, it will not break anything ?
- Mark
Hi Pankaj, Could you please explain the difference between t1,join(2000) and Thread.sleep(2000), in both the cases, the current thread waits for 2000 ms. Is there any difference in terms of locks or resources? Regards, Amishi
- Amishi Shah
Both are completely different things, sleep() causes current thread to wait for given time. join() is used with wait for another thread to complete execution or wait for given time. For example, in above program main() thread is using join() to wait for other threads to finish.
- Pankaj
thanks
- Deepak
How Can make sure the order of execution of the threads? First t1 should execute,then t2 and then t2 using join method
- srini
call t1.join() before calling t2.start() and so on.
- Pankaj
t1.join() is not required for the main thread to be end as t3.start() already took care of t1 dead state.
- Ramakant
Yes you are right, put some join method with time and check the output to learn more. The example code is to understand the join method.
- Pankaj
I am curious why t3.join() can be called when t2.join() is already called. I mean doesn’t t2.join() block main thread? If that’s the case, why can the main thread proceed to execute t3.join()?
- George Chou
t1.join(2000); means… does the t1 joins the main method ?
- Balaji
HI pankaj After going through ur code i was having certain doubts over the order of output you provided here so i ran the same code on my machine and the correct order of output is this : Thread started:::t1 Thread started:::t2 Thread ended:::t1 Thread started:::t3 Thread ended:::t2 Thread ended:::t3 All threads are dead, exiting main thread Thread t1 doesn’t end until thread t2 starts. I think that’s because while t1 goes to sleep for 4000 millisec main thread is still executing and as soon as it encounters t1.join(2000) it stops its own execution for the same time period but, thread t1 still has to wait for another 2000 millisec before completion. Meanwhile t2 starts and before t1 could complete its execution the line prints Thread started::::t2 For 2000 millisec the t1 thread’s sleep execution and t1’s join execution run in parallel Tell me if the above explanation is wrong.
- GreatestJoy
I have doubt if we called join() without thread refference just like public void m1()throws Exception { join(); } what happened
- guru ghule
Simple but informative article:) Keep up the good work bro:) If possible pls add more articles to collection framework internals.
- Gopinath
U are fab pankaj.
- kumkum
Great explanations.This is wat needed…
- pradpalnis
Best Example so Far. Thanks a lot to making join looks so easy.
- Kamal Thakur
Hi, I have one question in this, if t1 thread execution fails with NullPointer Exception , I need to stop the main thread or we have to capture wich thread is failed. Could you please explains this.
- Eswar
I have one doubt, as we can see in the implementation of the join() method , it waits until thread isAlive() method returen true. Now the question is when wait() is called on instance of the thread , it would be disabled for thread scheduling, So if i am calling join() on any thread instance , would it ever get chance to execute the code in run method as it is waiting in a loop over isAlive() method.
- Siddharth