Is thread still active after main method exits?

Question

Hi All,
Yesterday we were discussing. wether it is possible for a thread to be active even after the main method, from which it was spawned, exits.
any comments?

Answer 1

Hello,
If you start a thread from the main() method and then return from main(), the thread will remain running. Just try it out:
public class Test
    implements Runnable
    public static void main(String[] args)
        Thread t = new Thread(new Test());
        t.start();
        System.out.println("Returning from main()");
    public void run()
        try
            Thread.sleep(5000);     // Wait for 5 seconds
            System.out.println("Hello, I'm still here!");
        catch (InterruptedException ie)
            ie.printStackTrace();
}Note: If you exit main() using System.exit(), all threads will be killed!
Jesper