Question

Is it possible to set a timeout for a set of instructions in java? I have the following:

    new Thread(new Runnable(){
            public void run() {
                    //instructions
                    for(...){

                     ....
                    }
                    //instructions2
            }}).start();

i would like to set a timeout for the loop for and if it reaches the time continue normally with instructions2. Inside the loop i have several function calls( a litle complex organization)and can get blocked inside any one of them, resulting in long duration loop.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Assuming your blocking functions respond to interruption, you could use a future with a timeout. If they don’t there is not much you can do… Note that with the approach below you don’t need to manually start the thread any more.

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

        @Override
        public void run() {
            //your for loop here
        }
    });
    try {
        future.get(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS); //your timeout here
    } catch (TimeoutException e) {
        future.cancel(true);
    }
    forLoopExecutor.shutdownNow();
    //proceed with the rest of your code
    forLoopExecutor.submit(aRunnableForInstructions2);