Canceling a task in an executor

When you work with an executor, you don't have to manage threads. You only implement 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 send to the executor. In that case, you can use the cancel() method of Future, which allows you to make the cancelation operation. In this recipe, you will learn how to use this method to cancel tasks that you have sent to an executor.

Getting ready

The example of this recipe has been implemented using the Eclipse IDE. If you use Eclipse or a different IDE, such as NetBeans, open it and create a new Java project.

How to do it...

Follow these steps to implement the example:

1. Create a class named Task and specify that it implements the Callable interface parameterized by the String class. Implement the call() method. Write a message to the console...