Java Naming Thread and Current Thread

In Java, each thread has a unique name that helps in identifying it during execution. Java also provides the currentThread() method to access the currently executing thread. In this chapter, we will learn how to name threads and work with the current thread in Java.

Naming Thread

The Thread class provides methods to change and get the name of a thread. By default, each thread has a name, i.e. thread-0, thread-1 and so on. By we can change the name of the thread by using the setName() method.

Syntax

The syntax of setName() and getName() methods are given below:

We can also set the name of a thread directly when we create a new thread using the constructor of the class.

Example of naming a thread : Using setName() Method

The following example demonstrates how to assign a custom name to a thread using the setName() method.

Output:

Name of t1:Thread-0
Name of t2:Thread-1
After changing name of t1:Sonoo Jaiswal
running...
running...

Example of naming a thread : Without Using setName() Method

You can also set the name of a thread at the time of the creation of a thread, without using the setName() method.

The following example demonstrates how a thread is automatically assigned a default name when the setName() method is not used.

Output:

Thread - 1: JavaTpoint1
Thread - 2: JavaTpoint2
 The thread is executing....
 The thread is executing....

Current Thread

The currentThread() method returns a reference to the currently executing thread and it is commonly used to obtain the thread's name, priority, and state.

Syntax

The following is the syntax to get the current thread i.e., currentThread() method:

Example of currentThread() method

The following example demonstrates how the currentThread() method is used to obtain information about the currently executing thread.

Output:

Thread-0
Thread-1