Storing information with a thread

Question

I am working on a multithreaded server where each client runs on its own thread. I wrote a class called Client which extends Thread to make this happen.
To make it simple (for an example):
class Client extends Thread
public String m_clientname;
//oveloaded run method...
Now I have a function which can be invoked by any of the clients and I want it to be able to return the name of the current client by accessing the m_clientname variable in the current thread. Something like this:
public String getClientName()
Client clThread = (Client) Thread.currentThread();
return clThread.m_clientname;
Now, this isn't working (else I wouldn't be posting here). Does anyone know how/if this can be done. Or if there would be a better way of doing this?
Thanks,
Thaedrys

Answer 1

public String getClientName()
Client clThread = (Client) Thread.currentThread();
return clThread.m_clientname;
}first, if this is the way you are going to implement it, the method should be static to explain the way this method is implemented. BUT....
I don't understand why you would want it to behave this way. You have to guarantee that the caller calling this method is a Client, which i suspect is something you are not doing right now which is why it's failing.
I would just have this method return m_clientname;
and it's up to the caller to get the Client he is interested in.