Question

I just learn the bare bone of making a thread inside a program using process.h in C programming. And now, my problem is how to stop a specific thread.

Here is my code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <process.h>    

void  mimicCounter( void * );   

int main()
{
    int i;


    printf( "Now in the main() function.\n" );

    _beginthread( mimicCounter, 0, (void*)12 );

    for(i = 2; i <= 10; i++){
          Sleep(500);
          printf("%d\n",i);
    }

    system("PAUSE");
    printf("\n");
}

void  mimicCounter( void *arg )
{
    int i;
    printf( "The mimicCounter() function was passed %d\n", (INT_PTR)arg ) ;
    for(i = 1; i <= 10; i++){
          Sleep(500);
          printf("%d\n",i);
    }
}

I just want to stop the thread that I have created (the mimicCounter function) when it reaches i = 5, (yeah I know I set it to 10 but this is for ending a thread demo).

Thank you so much 🙂

Answer 1

The _endthread and _endthreadex functions terminate a thread created by _beginthread or _beginthreadex, respectively. You can call _endthread or _endthreadex explicitly to terminate a thread; however, _endthread or _endthreadex is called automatically when the thread returns from the routine passed as a parameter to _beginthread or _beginthreadex. Terminating a thread with a call to endthread or _endthreadex helps to ensure proper recovery of resources allocated for the thread.

From http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa246804(v=vs.60).aspx