Understanding C#'s `Thread.Join()` Method: Synchronizing Thread Execution

Learn how to use C#'s `Thread.Join()` method to synchronize threads and ensure that one thread waits for another to complete before continuing execution. This tutorial explains `Thread.Join()`'s functionality, its use in coordinating multithreaded operations, and provides examples illustrating its application in C#.

Understanding C#'s `Thread.Join()` Method

In multithreaded C# applications, the `Thread.Join()` method provides a way to synchronize threads. It makes a calling thread wait until a specified thread completes its execution.

How `Thread.Join()` Works

The `Join()` method is called on a `Thread` object. When you call `t1.Join()`, for example, the current thread will pause its execution until the thread referenced by `t1` finishes. This ensures that a portion of the code waits for another thread to finish its task before proceeding.

Example: Using `Thread.Join()`

using System;
using System.Threading;

public class MyThread {
    public void MyMethod() {
        // ... (code to be executed by the thread) ...
    }
}

public class ThreadExample {
    public static void Main(string[] args) {
        MyThread mt = new MyThread();
        Thread t1 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(mt.MyMethod));
        Thread t2 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(mt.MyMethod));
        // ... (starting threads and calling Join()) ...
    }
}

In this example, `t1.Join()` makes the main thread wait for `t1` to complete before continuing. The output shows that `t1` finishes completely before `t2` and `t3` start.