Python Multithreading – Python 3 threading module
Python Multithreading
Python Multithreading – Python’s threading module/package allows you to create threads as objects.
In Python, or any programming language, a thread is used to execute a task where some waiting is expected.
So that the main program does not wait for the task to complete, but the thread can take care of it
simultaneously.
In this tutorial, we shall learn how to work with threads in detailed sections.
Simple Example – Multiple threads
Create a thread
Start a thread
Pass arguments to thread function
Is Thread Alive
Thread Name
Example 1 – Python Multithreading
We shall look into a simple example to threading module, and then go in detail of working with threads.
Note : The following examples are worked on environment with Python3 installed.
Following is a simple example to create multiple threads using threading module.
Python Program
import threading
def f():
print('Thread function\n')
return
for i in range(3):
t = threading.Thread(target=f)
t.start()
Output
Thread function
Thread function
Thread function
Create a thread
You can create a thread in one of the two following ways.
1. Passing a method to Thread constructor.
def f():
print('Thread function\n')
return
t = threading.Thread(target=f)
Overriding run() method in a subclass of threading.Thread.
import threading
class CustomThread(threading.Thread):
def run(self):
print('Custom thread function.\n')
for i in range(3):
t = CustomThread()
Start a Thread
A thread is started by applying start() method on the thread object.
Python Program
import threading
import time
def f():
print('Thread running.\n')
return
# start threads by passing function to Thread constructor
for i in range(3):
t = threading.Thread(target=f)
t.start()
Output
Thread running.
Thread running.
Thread running.
Passing arguments to the function supplied to Thread
To pass arguments to the function supplied to Thread constructor, pass args in the Thread constructor as
shown below :
Python Program
import threading
import time
def f(i):
for p in range(3):
time.sleep(i+1)
print('Thread #',i,"\n")
time.sleep(i)
return
# start threads by passing function to Thread constructor
for i in range(3):
t = threading.Thread(target=f, args=(i,))
t.start()
Output
Thread # 0
Thread # 1
Thread # 0
Thread # 2
Thread # 0
Thread # 1
Thread # 1
Thread # 2
Thread # 2
Is Thread Alive
threading.Thread.is_alive() could be used to check if the thread is alive or not.
Thread.is_alive() returns True if the thread is alive, False if not alive.
Python Program
import threading
import time
def f(i):
time.sleep(i)
return
# threads
t1 = threading.Thread(target=f, args=(1.2,), name="Thread#1")
t1.start()
t2 = threading.Thread(target=f, args=(2.2,), name="Thread#2")
t2.start()
for p in range(5):
time.sleep(p*0.5)
print('[',time.ctime(),']', t1.getName(), t1.is_alive())
print('[',time.ctime(),']', t2.getName(), t2.is_alive())
Output
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:54 2018 ] Thread#1 True
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:54 2018 ] Thread#2 True
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:55 2018 ] Thread#1 True
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:55 2018 ] Thread#2 True
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:56 2018 ] Thread#1 False
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:56 2018 ] Thread#2 True
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:57 2018 ] Thread#1 False
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:57 2018 ] Thread#2 False
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:59 2018 ] Thread#1 False
[ Tue Feb 27 17:58:59 2018 ] Thread#2 False
Thread Name
Thread name could be set or read using setName() and getName() methods.
In a function being called inside a thread, to get the current thread, use threading.current_thread(). In the
following example we shall use this method to get current thread object.
Python Program
import threading
import time
def f(i):
for p in range(3):
time.sleep(i+1.5)
print(threading.current_thread().getName())
return
# start threads by passing function to Thread constructor
for i in range(3):
t = threading.Thread(target=f, args=(i,))
t.setName( 'Thread#'+str(i) )
t.start()
Output
Thread#0
Thread#1
Thread#0
Thread#2
Thread#0
Thread#1
Thread#2
Thread#1
Thread#2
When does a Thread stops ?
A thread stops when :
run() method terminates normally. [or]
an unhandled exception causes run() method to terminate abruptly.
Conclusion
In this Python Tutorial, we learned about multitherading using threading Python package.
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