join equivalent in Windows

Question

How do I wait for a thread to die in Windows? This is what I want my code to look like:

main thread:

creating thread: thread1
waiting for thread1 to die
//rest of the code

I am using Win32 API.

Solution

It's easy: the WaitForSingleObject can block current thread given the other thread's handle.

void Thread1Proc()
{
   HANDLE hThread2 = CreateThread(...);
   WaitForSingleObject(hThread2, INFINITE);

   // by now thread #2 is over

}

Comments

[Martin James]

<spiceGirls> Is that what you want, what you really, really want? </spiceGirls> Try hard to not do this at all. Use thread pools or lifetime-of-app threads that loop and never terminate. Waiting for thread termination should be a last resort, used only when no other design approach can possibly work.