The simplest way is to interrupt()
it, which will cause Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()
to return true
, and may also throw an InterruptedException
under certain circumstances where the Thread is waiting, for example Thread.sleep()
, otherThread.join()
, object.wait()
etc.
Inside the run()
method you would need catch that exception and/or regularly check the Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()
value and do something (for example, break out).
Note: Although Thread.interrupted()
seems the same as isInterrupted()
, it has a nasty side effect: Calling interrupted()
clears the interrupted
flag, whereas calling isInterrupted()
does not.
Other non-interrupting methods involve the use of “stop” (volatile
) flags that the running Thread monitors.