Python threading allows you to have different parts of your program run concurrently and can simplify your design. If you’ve got some experience in Python and want to speed up your program using threads, then this tutorial is for you!
This article assumes you’ve got the Python basics down pat and that you’re using at least version 3.6 to run the examples.
What Is a Thread?
A thread is a separate flow of execution. This means that your program will have two things happening at once. But for most Python 3 implementations the different threads do not actually execute at the same time: they merely appear to.
It’s tempting to think of threading as having two (or more) different processors running on your program, each one doing an independent task at the same time. That’s almost right. The threads may be running on different processors, but they will only be running one at a time.
Starting a Thread
Now that you’ve got an idea of what a thread is, let’s learn how to make one. The Python standard library provides threading, which contains most of the primitives you’ll see in this article. Thread, in this module, nicely encapsulates threads, providing a clean interface to work with them.
