When you work with an executor, you don’t have to manage threads. You only implement the Runnable or Callable tasks and send them to the executor. It’s the executor that’s responsible for creating threads, managing them in a thread pool, and finishing them if they are not needed. Sometimes, you may want to cancel a task that you sent to the executor. In that case, you can use the cancel() method of Future that allows you to make that cancellation operation. In this recipe, you will learn how to use this method to cancel the tasks that you have sent to an executor.

/**
 * This class implements the task of the example. It simply writes a message
 * to the console every 100 milliseconds 
 */
public class Task implements Callable<String> {

    /**
     * Main method of the task. It has an infinite loop that writes a message to
     * the console every 100 milliseconds
     */
    @Override
    public String call() throws Exception {
        while (true){
            System.out.printf("Task: Test\n");
            Thread.sleep(100);
        }
    }
}



/**
 * Main class of the example. Execute a task trough an executor, waits
 * 2 seconds and then cancel the task.
 */
public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        // Create an executor
        ThreadPoolExecutor executor = (ThreadPoolExecutor) Executors.newCachedThreadPool();

        // Create a task
        Task task = new Task();

        System.out.printf("Main: Executing the Task\n");

        // Send the task to the executor
        Future<String> result = executor.submit(task);

        // Sleep during two seconds
        try {
            TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(2);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        // Cancel the task, finishing its execution
        System.out.printf("Main: Cancelling the Task\n");
        result.cancel(true);
        // Verify that the task has been cancelled
        System.out.printf("Main: Cancelled: %s\n", result.isCancelled());
        System.out.printf("Main: Done: %s\n", result.isDone());

        // Shutdown the executor
        executor.shutdown();
        System.out.printf("Main: The executor has finished\n");
    }
}

You use the cancel() method of the Future interface when you want to cancel a task that you have sent to an executor. Depending on the parameter of the cancel() method and the status of the task, the behavior of this method is different:

• If the task has finished or has been canceled earlier or it can’t be canceled for other reasons, the method will return the false value and the task won’t be canceled.
• If the task is waiting in the executor to get a Thread object that will execute it, the task is canceled and never begins its execution. If the task is already running, it depends on the parameter of the method. The cancel() method receives a Boolean value as a parameter. If the value of that parameter is true and the task is running, it will be canceled. If the value of the parameter is false and the task is running, it won’t be canceled.

The following snippet shows the output of an execution of this example:

Main: Executing the Task
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Task: Test
Main: Cancelling the Task
Main: Cancelled: true
Main: Done: true
Main: The executor has finished