Creating threads to run algorithm players

Question

I am trying to write a program which implements a solution for the Prisoners and switches problem. I created a SwitchRoom class..

public class SwitchRoom
{
 private boolean switchA;
 private boolean switchB;

and a prisoner class

public class Prisoner
{
   public void visitSwitchRoom() {
      // do something with switches

Now I am thinking how exactly I can run this. Would it be best to have Prisoner class implement Runnable (make instances of them into threads) and then spawn 23 threads in a java program?

If this is a good approach could you please provide a code sample to get me started?

If it is not the right way could you give me some pointers on what is?

Answer 1

Your theorized approach seems to be alright.

Start with implementing runnable, and in the run() method do:

public void run() {
    while (true) {
        if (/*counterperson has 23 counts*/) { break; }
        synchronized (/*your switchroom object here*/) { // this makes it so only one person can flip switches at a time
            // use an if/else to figure out if this person is the "counter" person
            // try to flip a switch/do stuff based on required logic regarding if he is
            // the counter person
        }

        try {
            wait(100); // or however long you want to wait before trying again
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

and make 23 of these threads. If you put a boolean in each object that represents if the object is a normal prisoner or the counter person, remember to set the default to false, and set one of them to true so that eventually you break out of the while loop.