Android difference between Thread and AsyncTask

Question

I've been trying to connect to a server to retrieve some data. First thing came to my mind was to create a thread to connect asynchronously.

new Thread(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        // retrieve data
    }
}).run();

But the weird thing is that the thread I created worked synchronous with UI thread and I got a network exception so I ended up using AsyncTask. Do you guys know what could cause a thread to work non asynchronously with the UI thread? My class extends to a fragment.

Try this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18480206/asynctask-vs-thread-in-android — Lavekush Agrawal, Apr 09 '14 at 11:49
The link tells the difference between two of them but I was wondering why I could not do a background work in a thread, since both should be used for asynchronous tasks. — Barışcan Kayaoğlu, Apr 09 '14 at 11:53

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 09 '14 at 11:51

5

Your must start your thread with start() and not run() in order to start the new thread:

new Thread(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        // retrieve data
    }
}).start();

answered Apr 09 '14 at 11:51

makovkastar

5,000
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Yes I think that was the problem. But what's the difference between run and start? I could only see the exception throwing between them. – Barışcan Kayaoğlu Apr 09 '14 at 11:55
1

run() runs on the same thread as the caller's, whereas start() starts a new Thread. – NickT Apr 09 '14 at 12:04
1

@BarışcanKayaoğlu when you use `Thread.run()` the `run()` method of that Runnable that you passed to the Thread constructor is called in the same thread. – makovkastar Apr 09 '14 at 12:10

Android difference between Thread and AsyncTask

1 Answers1