Answer by JayC667 for "implements Runnable" vs "extends Thread" in Java

The best way for most worker threads is to have the threading completely encapsuled in the worker class so that nothing can interfere from the outside and cause unwanted and invalid thread/class states.

I've just posted an example, so I'll also share this with you:

/**
 * This worker can only run once
 * @author JayC667
 */
public class ProperThreading {

    private final Thread        mThread         = new Thread(() -> runWorkingLoop());   // if you want worker to be able to run multiple times, move initialisation into startThread()
    private volatile boolean    mThreadStarted  = false;
    private volatile boolean    mStopRequested  = false;

    private final long          mLoopSleepTime;

    public ProperThreading(final long pLoopSleepTime /* pass more arguments here, store in members */ ) {
        mLoopSleepTime = pLoopSleepTime;
    }

    public synchronized void startThread() {
        if (mThreadStarted) throw new IllegalStateException("Worker Thread may only be started once and is already running!");
        mThreadStarted = true;
        mThread.start();
    }

    private void runWorkingLoop() {
        while (!mStopRequested /* && other checks */ ) {
            try {
                // do the magic work here
                Thread.sleep(mLoopSleepTime);

            } catch (final InterruptedException e) {
                break;
            } catch (final Exception e) {
                // do at least some basic handling here, you should NEVER ignore exception unless you know exactly what you're doing, and then it should be commented!
            }
        }
    }

    public synchronized void stopThread() {
        if (!mThreadStarted) throw new IllegalStateException("Worker Thread is not even running yet!");
        mStopRequested = true;
        mThread.interrupt();
    }

}