Thread help - how to stop?

[scheffetz]

In my application I have an audio clip looping for some background music.
I start the music in a new thread.

For the life of me I cant figure out how to stop the thread/music!

Thread music = new Thread(new musicTrack(), "trax");
 music.start();


public class musicTrack implements Runnable{

    Thread music;
    String soundclip;
    Clip clip;

    public void run(){

    try {
          File soundFile = new File("assets/sounds/music2-1.wav");
          AudioInputStream audioIn = AudioSystem.getAudioInputStream(soundFile);

         clip = AudioSystem.getClip();
         clip.open(audioIn);
         clip.loop(Clip.LOOP_CONTINUOUSLY);

      } catch (UnsupportedAudioFileException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      } catch (IOException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      } catch (LineUnavailableException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
    }
  }

[sunde887]

Have you tried checking the API and the threading tutorials on oracles site? I believe interrupt will stop a thread, but I have not used threads much and have only read a little bit on them. I'm sure the API and tutorials will have an exact answer.

[scheffetz]

I have done loads of reading and experimenting.

Often times I need an example to make things clear to me. I am probably just doing something tiny that is wrong.

[JosAH]

I have done loads of reading and experimenting.

Often times I need an example to make things clear to me. I am probably just doing something tiny that is wrong.

As was stated in the API documentation for the Tread class, stopping it in any way from another Thread is not really safe, i.e. resources may get lost (open files or sockets etc.), so your Thread has to cooperate a bit; it can be asked to stop itself so it can clean up all its resources and die a graceful death. Somewhere in the Runnable part of your Thread you have to accomplish that:

public abstract class StoppableRunnable implements Runnable {
   private boolean stop;

   public void stop() { stop= true; }

   public void run() { 
      while (!stop) {
         doSomeChunkOfWork();
      }
      cleanUp();
   }

   abstract protected void doSomeChunkOfWork();
   abstract protected void cleanUp();
}

You need to extend the class above and implement the two abstract methods. Make sure that the doSomeChunkOfWork() method doesn't tie up the processor too much or otherwise the stopping of the Thread can be slow.

Alternatively you can interrupt() your Thread but then it has to check its isInterrupted() method and be prepared to catch an Exception when it was blocked for some reason (waiting for something or sleeping etc.)

kind regards,

Jos