Ruby Multithreading

Multithreading in Ruby allows for executing multiple threads simultaneously, enabling developers to write concurrent or parallel programs.

Syntax

Below is the basic syntax for creating a new thread in Ruby:

Thread.new {
  # code to be executed in the new thread
}

Example

The following example demonstrates how to create and start a new thread using Ruby:

thread = Thread.new {
  puts "Executing code in new thread"
}

# Wait for the thread to finish
thread.join

puts "Thread completed"

Output

The output of the above program would be:

Executing code in new thread
Thread completed

Explanation

In the code above, we create a new thread using Thread.new and pass a block of code to be executed in the thread. We then call the join method to wait for the thread to complete before continuing with the main thread's execution.

Use

Multithreading in Ruby can be used in a variety of cases such as improving performance, implementing concurrent algorithms, and handling multiple requests in web servers.

Important Points

• Ruby's Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) limits the maximum amount of parallelism that can be achieved through multithreading.
• Mutexes can be used to prevent race conditions when accessing shared resources in multiple threads.
• Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and livelocks when implementing complex multithreaded algorithms.

Summary

Multithreading in Ruby allows for concurrency and parallelism in programs, improving performance and enabling programmers to develop complex algorithms. While multithreading comes with its set of challenges, careful planning and programming can help mitigate these issues.