This article will introduce the basic concepts of multithreading in Python.
Multithreading is a type of parallelism, which allows multiple threads to run concurrently within a single process. A process can have multiple threads running at the same time.
Python's standard library provides a module called threading, which implements a number of object-oriented high-level interfaces to the lower-level thread module. With these interfaces, you can create and manage threads.
The Thread class represents a thread of execution. A thread has a name. It also has an identifier, which is a positive integer.
A thread can be in one of the following states:
- Running: The thread is executing its code.
- Ready: The thread is not running, but it is ready to run as soon as it gets a turn.
- Blocked: The thread is not running, and it is not ready to run. A thread is usually blocked when it is waiting for a resource that is not available.
A thread can be in only one state at a time.
When a thread is created, it is in the Ready state. When the thread gets a turn, it will start to run. When the thread is blocked, it will not run until it is unblocked.
A thread can be unblocked in the following ways:
- The thread can be unblocked by another thread.
- The thread can unblock itself.
A thread can block itself in the following ways:
- The thread can block itself by calling a blocking function.
- The thread can block itself by waiting for a resource that is not available.
A thread can be in only one state at a time.
