How can I figure out the parent of a thread???

Question

Hey guys!!!
I have a tiny question!!
I have a thread which could be run by 1 of 2 different parents.
So my idea was to set a variable...for example int a...and initialize it with 1 for the first parent and with 2 for the seond...then in the thread I make if...else...and whether a is 1 or 2 I know who the parent is.
So what I wanna know is:
Is there a method which can figure out who of those 2 the parent started the thread without using a variable???
cheers,
Tom

Answer 1

You code do that or if both parents implement some
interface, call it parentInterface have them pass them selfs in ... and the thread store that as part of its context.
Then provide a method call it getParent which returns that parent object. And even a getParentName.
interface parentInterface
  public String getName();
} // parentInterface
class myThread extends Thread
  public myThread(parentInterface pi)
    pInterface = pi;
  } // myThread
  public String getParentName()
      return pInterface.getName();
  } // getParentName
  parentInterface pInterface = null;
} // myThread
class parent1 implements parentInterface
} // parent1
class parent2 implements parentInterface
}  // parent2