Thread Class and the Runnable Interface:

Java's multithreading system is built upon the Thread class, its methods and its companion interfaces, Runnable, Thread encapsulated a thread of execution. Because you can not directly refer to the ethereal state of a running thread, you will deal along with it through its proxy, the Thread example which spawned it. For create a new thread, your program will either extend Thread implement the Runnable interface.

Method                                                         Description

getName                                               Obtain a thread's name

getPriority                                             Obtain a thread's priority.

isAlive                                                    Determine if a thread is still running.

join                                                         Wait for a thread to terminate

run                                                          Entry point for the thread

sleep                                                     Suspend a thread for a period of time

start                                                       Start a thread by calling its run method. 

Therefore far, the entire instance in this book has used a single thread of execution. A remainder of this lesson elaborate how to use Thread and Runnable to create and maintain threads, starting along with the one thread in which all Java programs have: the main thread.