In multithreading: How to determine which thread stops first

Question

Write a class named RaceHorse that extends Thread. Each RaceHorse has a name and run() method that displays the name 5000 times. Write a Java application that instantiates 2 RaceHorse objects. The last RaceHorse to finish is the loser.

This is the question. I have written the code for the two classes two run the thread Here are the codes:

RaceHorse

class RaceHorse extends Thread
{
    public String name;
    public RaceHorse(String name)
    {
        this.name = name;
    }
    public void run()
    {
        for(int i = 1 ; i <= 5000; i++)
        {
            System.out.println(i+"  "+name);
        }
        System.out.println(name+" finished.");
    }
}

Runner

class Runner{
    public static void main(String args[])
    {
        RaceHorse obj = new RaceHorse("Lol");
        RaceHorse obj2 = new RaceHorse("BOL");
        Thread t = new Thread(obj);
        Thread t2 = new Thread(obj2);
        t.start();
        t2.start();
    }
}

Now my problem is I am unable to find which of the thread finishes first and which seconds, i.e. which of the horse wins and which loses.!

Answer 1

First off: your RaceHorse objects are themselves threads. You should be able to say obj.start(); and it'd work just as well. So remove t and t2 entirely.

Next, you'll need some way to notify the main thread about the winner.

public void run()
{
    ... your loop stuff ...
    // this is how we're going to do the notification.
    Runner.done();
}

public class Runner
{
    private static RaceHorse winner = null;
    synchronized static void done()
    {
        // Threads calling this are going to be RaceHorse objects.
        // Now, if there isn't already a winner, this RaceHorse is the winner.
        if (winner == null) winner = (RaceHorse) Thread.currentThread();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
         ... create the horses ...
         // start the horses running
         obj.start();
         obj2.start();

         // wait for them to finish
         obj.join();
         obj2.join();

         System.out.println(winner.name + " wins!");
    }
}

Answer 2

There's no doubt a better way, but one method might be to create a class (e.g. 'Trophy') that is thread safe, has a method 'getTrohpy' that only returns true on the first call, and pass a reference to an instance of Trophy to both threads.