Android worker thread not exiting

Question

I have a thread derived from the Thread class inside a small test app. I start it by using its start() method. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to terminate when I stop the app's execution from within Eclipse by using the stop button. The only way I can get the thread to terminate is by uninstalling the app.

Is this normal? Can I get the app to completely stop and exit memory by stopping it in the debugger or do I always have to use a "clean" way to exit from within the app itself?

Answer 1

You can do it cleanly by stopping the Thread in onDestroy() or onStop() of the Activity. To stop the Thread, you can keep a flag in the Thread and turn it on when you want to stop.

public void stopRunning() {
    stopped = true;
}

public void run() {
    while (!stopped) {
        try {
            // Do something
        } catch (InterruptedException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}