Which method is used to identify a thread?

In Java, the getName() method of the Thread class is used to identify a thread. This method returns the name of the current thread as a string.

Key Details:

• The name of a thread is an identifier that can be used to distinguish between different threads.
• Each thread has a default name assigned by Java when it is created. The default name follows the format "Thread-N", where N is a unique number. For example, "Thread-0", "Thread-1", etc.
• You can also assign a custom name to a thread when you create it.

Example of Identifying a Thread:

class MyThread extends Thread {
    public void run() {
        // Get and print the name of the current thread
        System.out.println("Thread name: " + Thread.currentThread().getName());
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        MyThread thread1 = new MyThread();
        thread1.setName("MyCustomThread");  // Set a custom name
        thread1.start();  // Start the thread
        
        MyThread thread2 = new MyThread();
        thread2.start();  // This will use the default name
    }
}

Explanation:

• The getName() method is used inside the run() method to print the name of the current thread.
• In this example, thread1 is given a custom name, "MyCustomThread", while thread2 will use the default name assigned by Java (e.g., "Thread-1").