Multithreaded Programming

Running several threads is similar to running several different programs

concurrently, but with the following benefits −

 Multiple threads within a process share the same data space with the main
thread and can therefore share information or communicate with each other
more easily than if they were separate processes.

 Threads sometimes called light-weight processes and they do not require much
memory overhead; they are cheaper than processes.

A thread has a beginning, an execution sequence, and a conclusion. It has

an instruction pointer that keeps track of where within its context it is
currently running.

 It can be pre-empted (interrupted)

 It can temporarily be put on hold (also known as sleeping) while other threads
are running - this is called yielding.

Starting a New Thread

To spawn another thread, you need to call following method available
in thread module −
thread.start_new_thread ( function, args[, kwargs] )

This method call enables a fast and efficient way to create new threads in
both Linux and Windows.

The method call returns immediately and the child thread starts and calls
function with the passed list of args. When function returns, the thread
terminates.

Here, args is a tuple of arguments; use an empty tuple to call function

without passing any arguments. kwargs is an optional dictionary of keyword
arguments.

Example
#!/usr/bin/python

import thread

import time
# Define a function for the thread

def print_time( threadName, delay):

count = 0

while count < 5:

time.sleep(delay)

count += 1

print "%s: %s" % ( threadName, time.ctime(time.time()) )

# Create two threads as follows

try:

thread.start_new_thread( print_time, ("Thread-1", 2, ) )

thread.start_new_thread( print_time, ("Thread-2", 4, ) )

except:

print "Error: unable to start thread"

while 1:

pass

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Thread-1: Thu Jan 22 15:42:17 2009
Thread-1: Thu Jan 22 15:42:19 2009
Thread-2: Thu Jan 22 15:42:19 2009
Thread-1: Thu Jan 22 15:42:21 2009
Thread-2: Thu Jan 22 15:42:23 2009
Thread-1: Thu Jan 22 15:42:23 2009
Thread-1: Thu Jan 22 15:42:25 2009
Thread-2: Thu Jan 22 15:42:27 2009
Thread-2: Thu Jan 22 15:42:31 2009
Thread-2: Thu Jan 22 15:42:35 2009

Although it is very effective for low-level threading, but the thread module
is very limited compared to the newer threading module.

The Threading Module

The newer threading module included with Python 2.4 provides much more
powerful, high-level support for threads than the thread module discussed
in the previous section.
The threading module exposes all the methods of the thread module and
provides some additional methods −

 threading.activeCount() − Returns the number of thread objects that are

active.

 threading.currentThread() − Returns the number of thread objects in the

caller's thread control.

 threading.enumerate() − Returns a list of all thread objects that are currently

active.

In addition to the methods, the threading module has the Thread class that
implements threading. The methods provided by the Thread class are as
follows −

 run() − The run() method is the entry point for a thread.

 start() − The start() method starts a thread by calling the run method.

 join([time]) − The join() waits for threads to terminate.

 isAlive() − The isAlive() method checks whether a thread is still executing.

 getName() − The getName() method returns the name of a thread.

 setName() − The setName() method sets the name of a thread.

Creating Thread Using Threading Module

To implement a new thread using the threading module, you have to do the
following −

 Define a new subclass of the Thread class.

 Override the __init__(self [,args]) method to add additional arguments.

 Then, override the run(self [,args]) method to implement what the thread
should do when started.

Once you have created the new Thread subclass, you can create an
instance of it and then start a new thread by invoking the start(), which in
turn calls run() method.

Example
#!/usr/bin/python

import threading
import time

exitFlag = 0

class myThread (threading.Thread):

def __init__(self, threadID, name, counter):

threading.Thread.__init__(self)

self.threadID = threadID

self.name = name

self.counter = counter

def run(self):

print "Starting " + self.name

print_time(self.name, 5, self.counter)

print "Exiting " + self.name

def print_time(threadName, counter, delay):

while counter:

if exitFlag:

threadName.exit()

time.sleep(delay)

print "%s: %s" % (threadName, time.ctime(time.time()))

counter -= 1

# Create new threads

thread1 = myThread(1, "Thread-1", 1)

thread2 = myThread(2, "Thread-2", 2)

# Start new Threads

thread1.start()

thread2.start()
print "Exiting Main Thread"

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Starting Thread-1
Starting Thread-2
Exiting Main Thread
Thread-1: Thu Mar 21 09:10:03 2013
Thread-1: Thu Mar 21 09:10:04 2013
Thread-2: Thu Mar 21 09:10:04 2013
Thread-1: Thu Mar 21 09:10:05 2013
Thread-1: Thu Mar 21 09:10:06 2013
Thread-2: Thu Mar 21 09:10:06 2013
Thread-1: Thu Mar 21 09:10:07 2013
Exiting Thread-1
Thread-2: Thu Mar 21 09:10:08 2013
Thread-2: Thu Mar 21 09:10:10 2013
Thread-2: Thu Mar 21 09:10:12 2013
Exiting Thread-2

Synchronizing Threads
The threading module provided with Python includes a simple-to-implement
locking mechanism that allows you to synchronize threads. A new lock is
created by calling the Lock() method, which returns the new lock.

The acquire(blocking) method of the new lock object is used to force

threads to run synchronously. The optional blocking parameter enables you
to control whether the thread waits to acquire the lock.

If blocking is set to 0, the thread returns immediately with a 0 value if the

lock cannot be acquired and with a 1 if the lock was acquired. If blocking is
set to 1, the thread blocks and wait for the lock to be released.

The release() method of the new lock object is used to release the lock
when it is no longer required.

Example
#!/usr/bin/python

import threading

import time

class myThread (threading.Thread):

def __init__(self, threadID, name, counter):

threading.Thread.__init__(self)

self.threadID = threadID
 self.name = name

self.counter = counter

def run(self):

print "Starting " + self.name

# Get lock to synchronize threads

threadLock.acquire()

print_time(self.name, self.counter, 3)

# Free lock to release next thread

threadLock.release()

def print_time(threadName, delay, counter):

while counter:

time.sleep(delay)

print "%s: %s" % (threadName, time.ctime(time.time()))

counter -= 1

threadLock = threading.Lock()

threads = []

# Create new threads

thread1 = myThread(1, "Thread-1", 1)

thread2 = myThread(2, "Thread-2", 2)

# Start new Threads

thread1.start()

thread2.start()

# Add threads to thread list

threads.append(thread1)

threads.append(thread2)
# Wait for all threads to complete

for t in threads:

t.join()

print "Exiting Main Thread"

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Starting Thread-1
Starting Thread-2
Thread-1: Thu Mar 21 09:11:28 2013
Thread-1: Thu Mar 21 09:11:29 2013
Thread-1: Thu Mar 21 09:11:30 2013
Thread-2: Thu Mar 21 09:11:32 2013
Thread-2: Thu Mar 21 09:11:34 2013
Thread-2: Thu Mar 21 09:11:36 2013
Exiting Main Thread

Multithreaded Priority Queue

The Queue module allows you to create a new queue object that can hold a
specific number of items. There are following methods to control the Queue
−

 get() − The get() removes and returns an item from the queue.

 put() − The put adds item to a queue.

 qsize() − The qsize() returns the number of items that are currently in the
queue.

 empty() − The empty( ) returns True if queue is empty; otherwise, False.

 full() − the full() returns True if queue is full; otherwise, False.

Example
#!/usr/bin/python

import Queue

import threading

import time

exitFlag = 0

class myThread (threading.Thread):

def __init__(self, threadID, name, q):

 threading.Thread.__init__(self)

self.threadID = threadID

self.name = name

self.q = q

def run(self):

print "Starting " + self.name

process_data(self.name, self.q)

print "Exiting " + self.name

def process_data(threadName, q):

while not exitFlag:

queueLock.acquire()

if not workQueue.empty():

data = q.get()

queueLock.release()

print "%s processing %s" % (threadName, data)

else:

queueLock.release()

time.sleep(1)

threadList = ["Thread-1", "Thread-2", "Thread-3"]

nameList = ["One", "Two", "Three", "Four", "Five"]

queueLock = threading.Lock()

workQueue = Queue.Queue(10)

threads = []

threadID = 1

# Create new threads

for tName in threadList:

thread = myThread(threadID, tName, workQueue)

thread.start()
 threads.append(thread)

threadID += 1

# Fill the queue

queueLock.acquire()

for word in nameList:

workQueue.put(word)

queueLock.release()

# Wait for queue to empty

while not workQueue.empty():

pass

# Notify threads it's time to exit

exitFlag = 1

# Wait for all threads to complete

for t in threads:

t.join()

print "Exiting Main Thread"

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Starting Thread-1
Starting Thread-2
Starting Thread-3
Thread-1 processing One
Thread-2 processing Two
Thread-3 processing Three
Thread-1 processing Four
Thread-2 processing Five
Exiting Thread-3
Exiting Thread-1
Exiting Thread-2
Exiting Main Thread