Java Naming a Thread and Fetching Name of Current Thread

In Java, a thread is a lightweight process, and assigning meaningful names to threads improves readability and debugging. By default, threads are named as Thread-0, Thread-1, etc., but we can customize these names.

• Thread names help in debugging and tracking execution
• Names can be set during creation or later using methods
• Improves code clarity in multithreaded applications

Methods to Set the Thread Name

There are two ways by which we can set the name either be it directly or indirectly which we will be peeking through.

1. Using Constructor

It is a direct method of naming threads in Java, each thread has a name that is: Thread-0, Thread-1, Thread-2,....so on. So, let us check the direct method to set the name of the Thread.

Example: Setting the thread name at the time of creation and also bypassing the thread's name as an argument.

Thread 1: geek1
Thread 2: geek2
Thread is running..
Thread is running..

2. Using setName() method of Thread class

We can set(change) the thread's name by calling the setName method on that thread object. It will change the name of a thread.

Syntax: 

public final void setName(String name)

Parameter: A string that specifies the thread name 

Thread 1: Thread-0
Thread 2: Thread-1
Thread is running..
Thread names after changing the thread names
New Thread 1 name: geeksforgeeks
New Thread 2 name: geeksquiz
Thread is running..

How to Fetch the Name of the Current Thread?

Now let us dwell on fetching the name of the current thread. We can fetch the current thread name at the time of creating the thread and bypassing the thread’s name as an argument. 

Syntax:

public static Thread currentThread()

• Package: java.lang.Thread
• Return Type: It returns a reference to the currently executing thread.