Java - Basic Multithreading

Question

I would like to ask basic question about Java threads. Let's consider a producer - consumer scenario. Say there is one producer, and n consumer. Consumer arrive at random time, and once they are served they go away, meaning each consumer runs on its own thread. Should I still use run forever condition for consumer ?

public class Consumer extends Thread {
    public void run() {
        while (true) {
        }
    }
}

Won't this keep thread running forever ?

Answer 1

I wouldn't extend Thread, instead I would implement Runnable.

If you want the thread to run forever, I would have it loop forever.

A common alternative is to use

while(!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {

or

while(!Thread.interrupted()) {

Answer 2

It will, so you might want to do something like

while(beingServed)
{
    //check if the customer is done being served (set beingServed to false)
}

This way you'll escaped the loop when it's meant to die.