Limit time on a functioncall

Question

Possible Duplicate:
How to timeout a thread

I am using a function call to make a recursive search in a tree. It sets the best answer in a class variable and the function itself doesn't return anything.

So I want to limit the allowed time for the function. If the time has run out it simply stops and the thread is destroyed. How should I do if I want to limit the call to two seconds:

runFunction(search(),2000);

look at this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2275443/how-to-timeout-a-thread — japreiss, Sep 07 '12 at 15:33

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 07 '12 at 15:42

1

Assuming you are using Java 5 or greater, I would use the ExecutorService interface and the submit method:

ExecutorService executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
Future<?> future = executor.submit(new Runnable() {

@Override
public void run() {
    search();
    }
});
try {
    future.get(2000, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
} catch (TimeoutException e) {
    // handle time expired
}

Using this method, you can also adjust your thread to return a value by submitting a Callable instead of a Runnable.

answered Sep 07 '12 at 15:42

Richard

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That would only work if `search` is interruptible. – assylias Sep 07 '12 at 15:44
Perfect! Do I need to destroy the thread or is it done automaticly? – user1506145 Sep 07 '12 at 15:55

Limit time on a functioncall

1 Answers1