Can we propagate exceptions in threads?

Prior to Java1.5 we cannot because the run() method in Runnable interface is written such that there is no return value as well as return exceptions in the method signature and hence the overridden method cannot propagate exceptions.

In Java1.5 SUN has released java.util.concurrent package in which alternative to Runnable i.e, Callable is introduced which can return any type and throw any subtype of Exception.

So,
– Using Runnable interface, one cannot propagate the exception and cannot return any value (return type is ‘void’), hence we should go for try-catch block to handle the exception
– Using Callable interface, we can propagate exception( or return a value) to the parent thread where we invoked the callable thread.

Sample code demonstrating the usage is uploaded in GITHub
https://github.com/ntallapa/TechForumWorkspace