How do I start a Thread but keep it alive for a certain time?

Question

I don't really want to start a thread then put it to sleep, such as:

Thread.start();
Thread.sleep(3000);  //*Example* 

Instead, I want to this something like this (And I apologize for this amateur illustration):

Thread.start(3000) //*thread will be given a certain amount of time to execute* 

 //*After 3000 milliseconds, the thread stops and or sleeps*

I'm doing this because I'm making a program/ mini-game that times user input for a certain time. Basically, the user has 5 seconds to input a certain character/number/letter and after that time, the input stream is cut off. Kind of like:

Scanner kb = new Scanner(System.in);
int num = kb.nextInt();
kb.close()    //*Closes kb and input stream in turn*

Answer 1

I suggest you use a ScheduledExecutorService and scheduleWithFixedDelay(Runnable, long, long, TimeUnit) . You can cancel that if the user completes whatever task before the delay expires. If the delay runs out then the user failed whatever task.

Answer 2

You can try this sample.

    final List<Integer> result = new ArrayList<>();
    Thread thread = new Thread() {
        volatile boolean isDone = false;
        Timer timer = new Timer();

        @Override
        public void run() {
            timer.schedule(new TimerTask() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    isDone = true;
                }
            }, 5000);

            Scanner kb = new Scanner(System.in);
            while (!isDone) {
                int num = 0;
                num = kb.nextInt();
                result.add(num);
            }
            kb.close();
        }

    };
    thread.start();
    thread.join();

    for (Integer i : result) {
        System.out.print(i + " ");
    }