The safe way to stop a thread

[Java Tip]

The following Java tip shows the safe way to stop a thread. A timer is used to stop a thread after 500 milliseconds.

import java.util.Timer;
import java.util.TimerTask;

class CanStop extends Thread {
  // Must be volatile:
  private volatile boolean stop = false;

  private int counter = 0;

  public void run() {
    while (!stop && counter < 10000) {
      System.out.println(counter++);
    }
    if (stop)
      System.out.println("Detected stop");
  }

  public void requestStop() {
    stop = true;
  }
}

public class Stopping {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    final CanStop stoppable = new CanStop();
    stoppable.start();
    new Timer(true).schedule(new TimerTask() {
      public void run() {
        System.out.println("Requesting stop");
        stoppable.requestStop();
      }
    }, 500); // run() after 500 milliseconds
  }
}