Threading

The threading module allows multiple threads of execution to take place in a Python program.

While threads may appear to run simultaneously, only one thread can be executed at a time. This is enforced by Python’s global interpreter lock.

Threading is helpful when working with tasks that are I/O bound. This includes web-oriented tasks like scraping or downloading files.

Syntax

import threading

The threading module must first be imported before thread constants can be created and their methods can be used.

.is_alive(): Returns True if the thread is still running and False, otherwise.
.join(): Delays the flow of execution of a program until the target thread is completely read.
.local(): Returns a local thread object with data that is specific to that thread.
.run(): Executes any target function belonging to a given thread object that is now active.
.start(): Activates and prompts a thread object to be run.
.Thread(): Returns a thread object that can run a function with zero or more arguments.