Send parameters to a thread and retrieve results from it in Java threads

To send parameters to a thread and retrieve results from it in Java, you typically use the Callable interface and Future objects.

The Callable interface is similar to Runnable, but it can return a value and throw exceptions.

A Future object represents the result of an asynchronous computation and can be used to retrieve the Callable's return value once the computation has completed.

WordLengthCallable.java

import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
import java.util.concurrent.Future;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
 
// A class that implements Callable
class WordLengthCallable implements Callable<Integer> {
    private final String word;
 
    public WordLengthCallable(String word) {
        this.word = word;
    }
 
    @Override
    public Integer call() {
        // Returning the length of the word
        return word.length();
    }
}
 
public class CallableExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Creating a thread pool with one thread
        ExecutorService executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
 
        // Creating a callable object
        WordLengthCallable callable = new WordLengthCallable("Hello, World");
 
        // Submitting the callable to the executor and getting a Future object
        Future<Integer> future = executor.submit(callable);
 
        try {
            // Getting the result from the Future object
            int length = future.get();
            System.out.println("Length of the word: " + length);
        } catch (InterruptedException | ExecutionException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
 
        // Shutting down the executor
        executor.shutdown();
    }
}

Callable Implementation: The WordLengthCallable class implements Callable<Integer> and overrides the call method. It takes a String parameter and returns the length of the string.

ExecutorService: The ExecutorService is used to manage and execute Callable tasks. In this example, a single-threaded executor is created.

Submitting Callable: The callable object is submitted to the executor using the submit method, which returns a Future object. This Future object represents the result of the Callable.

Retrieving Result: The future.get() method is used to retrieve the result of the Callable. This method blocks until the computation is complete.

Handling Exceptions: The code handles InterruptedException and ExecutionException, which can be thrown while waiting for the result.

Shutting Down Executor: Finally, the executor is shut down to prevent the program from running indefinitely.

This example demonstrates a clean way to pass parameters to a thread and retrieve results from it in Java.

Using Callable and Future makes it easier to manage threads and process their results, especially when dealing with tasks that return values or might throw exceptions.