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Executing a Thread in Asynctask and its complications

I was wondering is it ok to execute a Thread inside the doInBackground method of Asynctask. Should I avoid using this kind of structure on my codes? And if yes, why should I avoid it? Would this cause any ineffectiveness in my apps?

In principle, there's no problem with starting a thread in the doInBackground() of an AsyncTask, but sometimes you see this done not because it's the right thing to do, but because of a misunderstanding about how AsyncTask works.
The point is that doInBackground() will automatically get executed on a background (non-GUI) thread, without you needing to create a thread for it yourself. That, in fact, is the whole point of an AsyncTask. So if you have a simple, linear task that you want executed in the background, you do it with an AsyncTask, and you don't need to do any manual thread creation.
Where you might want to start a new thread in an AsyncTask is if you want your background task to use multiple threads to complete. Suppose that you were writing an app to check the online status of various servers, and display something about their status on the screen. You'd use an AsyncTask to do the network access in the background; but if you did it in a naive way, you'd end up with the servers being pinged one by one, which would be rather slow (especially if one was down, and you needed to wait for a timeout). The better option would be to make sure that each server was dealt with on its own background thread. You'd then have a few options, each of which would be defensible:
Have a separate AsyncTask for each server.
Create a thread for each server inside the doInBackground() of your single AsyncTask, and then make sure that doInBackground() doesn't complete until all the individual threads have completed (use Thread.join()).
Use a ThreadPool / some kind of ExecutorService / a fork/join structure inside your single AsyncTask, to manage the threads for you.
I would say that with modern libraries there is rarely a need for manual thread creation. Library functions will manage all of this for you, and take some of the tedium out of it, and make it less error-prone. The third option above is functionally equivalent to the second, but just uses more of the high-level machinery that you've been given, rather than going DIY with your thread creation.
I'm not saying that threads should never be created manually, but whenever you're tempted to create one, it's well worth asking whether there's a high-level option that will do it for you more easily and more safely.

is it ok to execute a Thread inside the doInBackground method of
Asynctask.
yes it is but it really depends on your application and your usage. for example in a multithread server-client app you must create for each incoming clients one thread and also you must listen on another thread. so creating thread inside another is ok. and you can use asynctask for listening to your clients.
Should I avoid using this kind of structure on my codes? And if yes,
why should I avoid it?
If you design it carefully you do not need to avoid, for example make sure that on rotation you do not create another asynctask because for example if your user rotates 5 times you create 5 asynctasks and in each of them you create a thread that means you will get 10 threads, soon you will get memory leak.
Would this cause any ineffectiveness in my apps? Can you explain
these questions please.
I answered it above, I think better idea is using Thread Pool to minimize number of creating your threads or wraping your asynctask in a UI less fragment so you are sure you have one asynctask regardless of whats going to happen.

In any higher programming language, there is concept of multi-tasking. Basically the user needs to run some portion of code without user interaction. A thread is generally developed for that. But in Android, multi-tasking can be done by any of the three methods Thread and AsyncTask.
Thread
A thread is a concurrent unit of execution. It has its own call stack. There are two methods to implement threads in applications.
One is providing a new class that extends Thread and overriding its run() method.
The other is providing a new Thread instance with a Runnable object during its creation.
A thread can be executed by calling its "start" method. You can set the "Priority" of a thread by calling its "setPriority(int)" method.
A thread can be used if you have no affect in the UI part. For example, you are calling some web service or download some data, and after download, you are displaying it to your screen. Then you need to use a Handler with a Thread and this will make your application complicated to handle all the responses from Threads.
A Handler allows you to send and process Message and Runnable objects associated with a thread's MessageQueue. Each thread has each message queue. (Like a To do List), and the thread will take each message and process it until the message queue is empty. So, when the Handler communicates, it just gives a message to the caller thread and it will wait to process.
If you use Java threads then you need to handle the following requirements in your own code:
Synchronization with the main thread if you post back results to the user interface
No default for canceling the thread
No default thread pooling
No default for handling configuration changes in Android
AsyncTask
AsyncTask enables proper and easy use of the UI thread. This class allows performing background operations and publishing results on the UI thread without having to manipulate threads and/or handlers. An asynchronous task is defined by a computation that runs on a background thread and whose result is published on the UI thread.
AsyncTask will go through the following 4 stages:
1. onPreExecute()
Invoked on the UI thread before the task is executed
2. doInbackground(Params..)
Invoked on the background thread immediately after onPreExecute() finishes executing.
3. onProgressUpdate(Progress..)
Invoked on the UI thread after a call to publishProgress(Progress...).
4. onPostExecute(Result)
Invoked on the UI thread after the background computation finishes.
And there are lot of good resources over internet which may help you:
http://www.vogella.com/articles/AndroidBackgroundProcessing/article.html http://www.mergeconflict.net/2012/05/java-threads-vs-android-asynctask-which.html

I would say there is no problem in doing that if you need something to run concurrently beside the AsyncTask.
One issue could be one of readability (using 2 different ways for concurrency), but I really can't see the harm in that - especially if one of the tasks needs to show it's result in the UI and the other one doesn't.

Understanding when and why to use different Android threads

Hopefully someone can explain this to me or point me to a resource I can read to learn more. I am building an app that uses a ListView and a custom list adapter that I modeled off one of the many tutorials available online such as this one:
http://www.softwarepassion.com/android-series-custom-listview-items-and-adapters/
It worked fine. However, every example of how to do this runs the process of building the list of objects to be displayed and collecting the required data on separate threads.
I want to know why/couldn't you just put everything into onCreate? I can't see a reason why you would need separate threads to make this happen. Is there some general form/standard for when/what must me run on certain threads?

The Android docs on this are very good, as with most things.
The upshot is: the UI should always be responsive. So if you have some operation that will take enough time that the user will notice, you might want to consider not running it in the UI thread. Some common examples are network IO and database accesses. It's something of a case-by-case basis though, so you have to make the call for yourself a bit.

Well, if building the list of objects is not a relatively short process, doing it in onCreate() would be blocking/slowing the main thread. If you use a separate thread, it will allow the android os to load all of the UI elements while you are waiting for the list to be populated. Then when the list of objects is ready, you can instantly populate the already initialized UI, as opposed to waiting to initialize the UI until after the list of objects is built. It ensures that your application will always be responsive for the user.

Because you only have 0.5 sec to execute onCreate — after which the dreaded ADN (application not responding) error message is displayed. So unless your list view is super simple you won't make it it in time. And even if your list view is super simple it is better to learn it the proper way.
BTW: I don't even use threads, I use one or more Services to do all the work. Even more difficult to implement but more robust and responsive as well.

The reason you don't do things in onCreate or on the UI thread is for responsiveness. If your app takes too long to process, the user gets shown an App Not Responding dialog.

my teacher once said: every software can be written in a single (big) for loop.
And if you think: it can be... maybe at NDK level.
Some SDK developers wanted to make the software developers tasks easier and that's, why exists the SDK's and frameworks.
Unless you don't need anything from multitasking you should use single threading.
Sometimes there are time limitations, sometimes UI/background/networking limitations and need to do stuff in diff threads.

If you see source code of Asyntask and Handler, you will see their code purely in Java. (of course, there some exceptions, but that is not an important point).
Why does it mean ? It means no magic in Asyntask or Handler. They just make your job easier as a developer.
For example: If ProgramA calls methodA(), methodA() would run in a different thread with ProgramA.You can easily test by:
Thread t = Thread.currentThread();
int id = t.getId();
And why you should use new thread ? You can google for it. Many many reasons.
So, what is the difference ?
AsyncTask and Handler are written in Java (internally use a Thread), so everything you can do with Handler or AsyncTask, you can achieve using a Thread too.
What Handler and AsyncTask really help you with?
The most obvious reason is communication between caller thread and worker thread. (Caller Thread: A thread which calls the Worker Thread to perform some task.A Caller Thread may not be the UI Thread always). And, of course, you can communicate between two thread by other ways, but there are many disadvantages, for eg: Main thread isn't thread-safe (in most of time), in other words, DANGEROUS.
That is why you should use Handler and AsyncTask. They do most of the work for you, you just need to know what methods to override.
Difference Handler and AsyncTask: Use AsyncTask when Caller thread is a UI Thread. This is what android document says:
AsyncTask enables proper and easy use of the UI thread. This class allows to perform background operations and publish results on the UI thread without having to manipulate threads and/or handlers
I want to emphasize on two points:
1) Easy use of the UI thread (so, use when caller thread is UI Thread).
2) No need to manipulate handlers. (means: You can use Handler instead of AsyncTask, but AsyncTask is an easier option).
There are many things in this post I haven't said yet, for example: what is UI Thread, of why it easier. You must know some method behind each kind and use it, you will completely understand why..
#: when you read Android document, you will see:
Handler allows you to send and process Message and Runnable objects associated with a thread's MessageQueue
They may seem strange at first.Just understand that, each thread has each message queue. (like a To do List), and thread will take each message and do it until message queue emty. (Ah, maybe like you finish your work and go to bed). So, when Handler communicates, it just gives a message to caller thread and it will wait to process. (sophiscate ? but you just know that, Handler can communicate with caller thread in safe-way)

Android and threads

I have 2 questions in terms of android development and threads
1) When do you think I should use threads in android development?
2) If I have the main UI thread waiting on some variable to be set before it displays a toast, then I thought about having a while(true) loop in a sperate thread that keeps checking that variable. Now if the variable is set, how do I call the method on the first thread (The UI thread) that will display a toast
Thank you so much

Using threads directly is not necessary in most cases. The android facilities for threaded programming are great, and easy to use.
You have about three options to call the UI thread from another thread:
Handler - set an handler on the other thread from the UI thread, and send it a message when need.
AsyncTask - Perform the main task in background, but modify the UI before, during and after completion.
PerformOnUiThread - call this method with a runnable to modify the UI on the UI thread.
Good article to read about is Painless Threading.

Never have a while(true) loop that continuously runs. It'll burn massive amounts of resources and, in your case, accomplish very little.
Threads are good to run for (mainly) background tasks and resource intensive tasks (so that you don't block the UI thread). To create a new Thread, use the following:
new Thread(new Runnable(){
public void run(){
//do stuff here.
}
}
).start();
You can also look into the Android AsyncTask to avoid using Threads directly.

Depending on the type of app you are working on/with, proper use of Theads can be key to having a fast and responsive UI.
Key Rule:
If you need to to anything that accesses the filesystem, network, image loading, or anything that requires more than simple value or state checks, immediately launch and perform that effort in a thread. As already stated here, a number of options are available, although myself I usually use:
change_UI_if_needed_to_indicate_click_response();
new Thread(new Runnable(){
do stuff here ;
}).start()
You can also use standard (non-inline) thread objects like this.
That may be bad practice, I don't know. Anyway, it works well for me, and isn't really the point of your question.
If you want to run something on the UI thread using standard Java, instead of specialized Android object that specifically allows for such things, there is a post(Runnable) method attached to each and every view. For me, that's the easiest my to get code back onto the UI thread.
myView.post(new Runnable{
codeForUI();
});
My general rule is to try to never run anything on the UI thread that does not need to be there. Hope that helps.

You must use thread, if you want to prevent application from the current error or crash "Application not responding".
i use it when i call web services, geolocations.
Good frensh article:
http://souissihaythem.blogspot.com/2011/08/application-not-responding.html
http://souissihaythem.blogspot.com/2011/08/application-not-responding-solution.html

Design problem: coalescing objects sent to a Handler

I'm looking for advice or critique of a design concept for coalescing Runnable objects posted to a Handler. The case is that I have a background thread that generates small chunks of work that must be done on the event thread. Each chunk is posted to a Handler as a Runnable in the usual way. It turns out that if one of these Runnables has not started executing, it would be easy to modify it to do additional work when it does run instead of constructing and posting another Runnable. This coalescing of work chunks would be both cheaper than constructing another Runnable and would also cut down on the problem of the background thread flooding the event queue.
There are a couple of problems, though. First, I need to have access to the last Runnable delivered to the event queue. As far as I know, neither Handler nor Looper offer any such function, so I was planning to just keep a reference to the last posted Runnable in my background thread code. I'm just assuming that maintaining a reference like this isn't going to cause problems anywhere in the system.
The more serious issue is that I'd have to have some way of knowing if a Runnable has been taken off the queue and started. I plan to handle that by adding a flag to my Runnable class and setting at the start of the run() method. There would still be some synchronizing necessary to avoid race conditions between testing the flag and updating the Runnable (background thread) and setting the flag once the Runnable starts executing (event thread).
Has anyone done anything like this, and if so, how did you do it? Am I overlooking something that I need to deal with?

That seems like a way to code some nasty bugs.
I have a program, that receives feed veeeeery often and posts it on multiple components, and it actually doesn't do much harm and doesn't have any visible side effects.
If you really want to go with it (I might not fully understand your situation), wouldn't it be easier, to have some "work chunks" pool, where all the needed work will be stored and some kind of work starter that will launch a new Runnable once in a while.
It goes like this:
With the first event, the "work starter" posts a runnable to a handler. This runnable asks the pool to give him all the work currently available and processes it, at the end it tells the "work starter" that it has finished, starter runs another runnable, that asks the pool for a new work, etc...
The runnable you post can be a subclass of your own worker runnable, to make those queries to the pool and report about finished work easier. No need to store flags, or change runnables. And no need to deal with concurrency problems (if you have only 1 handler that is)

Handler vs AsyncTask

I'm confused as to when one would choose AsyncTask over a Handler. Say I have some code I want to run every n seconds which will update the UI. Why would I choose one over the other?

IMO, AsyncTask was written to provide a convenient, easy-to-use way to achieve background processing in Android apps, without worrying too much about the low-level details(threads, message loops etc). It provides callback methods that help to schedule tasks and also to easily update the UI whenever required.
However, it is important to note that when using AsyncTask, a developer is submitting to its limitations, which resulted because of the design decisions that the author of the class took. For e.g. I recently found out that there is a limit to the number of jobs that can be scheduled using AsyncTasks.
Handler is more transparent of the two and probably gives you more freedom; so if you want more control on things you would choose Handler otherwise AsynTask will work just fine.

My rule of thumb would be:
If you are doing something isolated related to UI, for example downloading data to present in a list, go ahead and use AsyncTask.
If you are doing multiple repeated tasks, for example downloading multiple images which are to be displayed in ImageViews (like downloading thumbnails) upon download, use a task queue with Handler.

Always try to avoid using AsyncTask when possible mainly for the following reasons:
AsyncTask is not guaranteed to run since there is a ThreadPool base and max size set by the system and if you create too much asynctask they will eventually be destroyed
AsyncTask can be automatically terminated, even when running, depending on the activity lifecycle and you have no control over it
AsyncTask methods running on the UI Thread, like onPostExecute, could be executed when the Activity it is referring to, is not visible anymore, or is possibly in a different layout state, like after an orientation change.
In conclusion you shouldn't use the UIThread-linked methods of AsyncTask, which is its main advantage!!! Moreover you should only do non critical work on doInBackground.
Read this thread for more insights on this problems:
Is AsyncTask really conceptually flawed or am I just missing something?
To conclude try to prefer using IntentServices, HandlerThread or ThreadPoolExecutor instead of AsyncTask when any of the above cited problems ma be a concern for you. Sure it will require more work but your application will be safer.

If you want to do a calculation every x seconds, you should probably schedule a Runnable on a Handler (with postDelayed()) and that Runnable should start in the current UI thread. If you want to start it in another thread, use HandlerThread.
AsyncTask is easier to use for us but no better than handler.

The Handler is associated with the application’s main thread. it handles and schedules messages and runnables sent from background threads to the app main thread.
AsyncTask provides a simple method to handle background threads in order to update the UI without blocking it by time consuming operations.
The answer is that both can be used to update the UI from background threads, the difference would be in your execution scenario. You may consider using handler it you want to post delayed messages or send messages to the MessageQueue in a specific order.
You may consider using AsyncTask if you want to exchange parameters (thus updating UI) between the app main thread and background thread in an easy convinient way.

AsyncTask presumes you will do something on the UI thread, after some background work is finished. Also, you can execute it only once (after this, its status is FINISHED and you'll get an exception trying to execute it once more). Also, the flexibility of using it is not much. Yes, you can use THREAD_POOL_EXECUTOR for a parallel execution, but the effort might be not worthy.
Handler doesn't presume anything, except handling Runnables and Messages. Also, it can be run as many times as you wish. You are free to decide to which thread it must be attached to, how it communicates with other handlers, maybe produce them with HandlerThread. So, it's much more flexible and suitable for some repeated work.
Check different kind of Handler examples here.

They are best interview question which is asked.
AsyncTask - They are used to offload of UI thread and do tasks in background.
Handlers - Android dosent have direct way of communication between UI and background thread. Handlers must be used to send message or runnable through the message queue.
So AsyncTasks are used where tasks are needed to be executed in background and Handlers are used for communication between a UI and Background Thread.

doInBackground - basically does work in another thread.
onPostExecute - posts the results on the UI thread and it is internally sending message to handler of main thread. Main UI thread already has a looper and handler associated with it.
So basically,if you have to do some background task,use AsyncTask. But ultimately,if something needs to be updated on UI,it will be using main thread's handler.