Concurrency is making a program run on multiple threads at a time. An example of a concurrent program is a web server responding many clients at the same time. Concurrency is easy with message passing but very difficult to write if they are based on data sharing.

Data that is passed between threads are called messages. Messages may be composed of any type and any number of variables. Every thread has an id, which is used for specifying recipients of messages. Any thread that starts another thread is called the owner of the new thread.

Initiating Threads in D

The function spawn() takes a pointer as a parameter and starts a new thread from that function. Any operations that are carried out by that function, including other functions that it may call, would be executed on the new thread. The owner and the worker both start executing separately as if they were independent programs.

Example

import std.stdio; 
import std.stdio; 
import std.concurrency; 
import core.thread;
  
void worker(int a) { 
   foreach (i; 0 .. 4) { 
      Thread.sleep(1); 
      writeln("Worker Thread ",a + i); 
   } 
}

void main() { 
   foreach (i; 1 .. 4) { 
      Thread.sleep(2); 
      writeln("Main Thread ",i); 
      spawn(≈worker, i * 5); 
   }
   
   writeln("main is done.");  
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it reads the file created in previous section and produces the following result −

Main Thread 1 
Worker Thread 5 
Main Thread 2 
Worker Thread 6 
Worker Thread 10 
Main Thread 3 
main is done. 
Worker Thread 7 
Worker Thread 11 
Worker Thread 15 
Worker Thread 8 
Worker Thread 12 
Worker Thread 16 
Worker Thread 13
Worker Thread 17 
Worker Thread 18

Thread Identifiers in D

The thisTid variable available globally at the module level is always the id of the current thread. Also you can receive the threadId when spawn is called. An example is shown below.

Example

import std.stdio; 
import std.concurrency;  

void printTid(string tag) { 
   writefln("%s: %s, address: %s", tag, thisTid, &thisTid); 
} 
 
void worker() { 
   printTid("Worker"); 
}
  
void main() { 
   Tid myWorker = spawn(&worker); 
   
   printTid("Owner "); 
   
   writeln(myWorker); 
}

Owner : Tid(std.concurrency.MessageBox), address: 10C71A59C 
Worker: Tid(std.concurrency.MessageBox), address: 10C71A59C 
Tid(std.concurrency.MessageBox)

import std.stdio; 
import std.concurrency; 
import core.thread; 
import std.conv;  

void workerFunc(Tid tid) { 
   int value = 0;  
   while (value >= 0) { 
      value = receiveOnly!int(); 
      auto result = to!double(value) * 5; tid.send(result);
   }
} 
 
void main() { 
   Tid worker = spawn(&workerFunc,thisTid); 
    
   foreach (value; 5 .. 10) { 
      worker.send(value); 
      auto result = receiveOnly!double(); 
      writefln("sent: %s, received: %s", value, result); 
   }
   
   worker.send(-1); 
} 

sent: 5, received: 25 
sent: 6, received: 30 
sent: 7, received: 35 
sent: 8, received: 40 
sent: 9, received: 45 

import std.stdio; 
import std.concurrency; 
import core.thread; 
import std.conv; 
 
void workerFunc(Tid tid) { 
   Thread.sleep(dur!("msecs")( 500 ),); 
   tid.send("hello"); 
}
  
void main() { 
   spawn(&workerFunc,thisTid);  
   writeln("Waiting for a message");  
   bool received = false;
   
   while (!received) { 
      received = receiveTimeout(dur!("msecs")( 100 ), (string message) { 
         writeln("received: ", message); 
      });

      if (!received) { 
         writeln("... no message yet"); 
      }
   } 
}

Waiting for a message 
... no message yet 
... no message yet 
... no message yet 
... no message yet 
received: hello