Introduction to Threads

Explore the basics of multithreading in modern C++. Understand threads, synchronization primitives like mutexes and locks, thread-local data, condition variables, and tasks. This lesson sets the foundation for managing concurrency safely and efficiently in C++ applications.

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C++ has had a multithreading interface since C++11. This interface has all the basic building blocks for creating multithreaded programs: threads, synchronization primitives for shared data (e.g. mutexes and locks), thread-local data, synchronization mechanism for threads (e.g. condition variables), and tasks. Tasks are usually called promises, and they provide a higher level of abstraction than native threads. It is okay if you do not understand the terms discussed here, as all of them will be discussed in depth in the following lessons.

1.Introduction

2.A Quick Overview

3.Memory Model: The Contract

4.Memory Model: Atomics

5.Memory Model: Synchronization and Ordering Constraints

6.Memory Model: Fences

7.Multithreading: Threads

8.Multithreading: Shared Data

9.Multithreading: Local Data

10.Multithreading: Condition Variables

11.Multithreading: Tasks

12.Case Study: Calculate Sum of a Vector

13.Case Study: Thread-Safe Initialization of a Singleton

14.Case Study: Ongoing Optimization with CppMem

15.Parallel Algorithms of the Standard Template Library

16.The Future: C++20

17.Coding Examples

18.Best Practices

19.The Time Library

20.Glossary

21.About the Author

Introduction to Threads