[Java Threads] Should we extend Thread Class or implement Runnable interface

These are very common questions that a beginner Java developer may ask while learning Multi-threading in Java programming.

Answer : There are two ways. 1 : Using Thread class, 2 : Using Runnable Interface.

Answer : Thread is a class from java.lang.Thread package , where as Runnable is an interface from java.lang.Runtime package.

Answer : It depends, but as much as possible we must make use of Runnable interface, We must try to extend a class only when we want to override some behavior. When we extend a class, the two classes are very tightly coupled to each other.

package com.code2care.examples;

public class ThreadClassExample extends Thread {

	Thread thread;

	ThreadClassExample() {

		thread = new Thread(this);
		System.out.println(thread + " : Started!");
		thread.start();
	}

	@Override
	public void run() {

		for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
			System.out.println("Thread : " + thread.getName() + " " + i);
			
		}
    }

}

package com.code2care.examples;

public class ThreadClient {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		new ThreadClassExample();
	
	}
}

package com.code2care.examples;

public class RunnableExample implements Runnable {

	Thread thread;

	RunnableExample() {

		thread = new Thread(this);
		thread.start();

	}

	@Override
	public void run() {

		for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
			System.out.println("Thread : " + thread.getName() + " " + i);

		}
	}
}

package com.code2care.examples;

public class ThreadClient {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		new ThreadClassExample();
	}
}