Executing Thread Objects

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Once you have implemented a thread class by giving it an Execute method, you can use it in your application to launch the code in the Execute method. To use a thread, first create an instance of the thread class. You can create a thread instance that starts running immediately, or you can create your thread in a suspended state so that it only begins when you call the Resume method. To create a thread so that it starts up immediately, set the constructor's CreateSuspended parameter to False. For example, the following line creates a thread and starts its execution:

SecondThread := TMyThread.Create(false); {create and run the thread }

TMyThread *SecondThread = new TMyThread(false); // create and run the thread

Warning: Do not create too many threads in your application. The overhead in managing multiple threads can impact performance. The recommended limit is 16 threads per process on single processor systems. This limit assumes that most of those threads are waiting for external events. If all threads are active, you will want to use fewer.

You can create multiple instances of the same thread type to execute parallel code. For example, you can launch a new instance of a thread in response to some user action, allowing each thread to perform the expected response.

The following topics discuss how to use the threads in your application:

• Overriding the Default Priority
• Starting and Stopping Threads

See Also

• Defining Thread Objects