Programmer's Guide to Java™ Certification, A: A Comprehensive Primer, Second Edition

9.3. Thread Creation

A thread in Java is represented by an object of the Thread class. Implementing threads is achieved in one of two ways:

• implementing the java.lang.Runnable interface

• extending the java.lang.Thread class

Implementing the Runnable Interface

The Runnable interface has the following specification, comprising one method prototype declaration:

public interface Runnable {
    void run();
}

A thread, which is created based on an object that implements the Runnable interface, will execute the code defined in the public method run(). In other words, the code in the run() method defines an independent path of execution and thereby the entry and the exits for the thread. The thread ends when the run() method ends, either by normal completion ...