How can I pass a parameter to a Java Thread?

When you create a thread, you need an instance of Runnable. The easiest way to pass in a parameter would be to pass it in as an argument to the constructor:

public class MyRunnable implements Runnable {

    private volatile String myParam;

    public MyRunnable(String myParam){
        this.myParam = myParam;
        ...
    }

    public void run(){
        // do something with myParam here
        ...
    }

}

MyRunnable myRunnable = new myRunnable("Hello World");
new Thread(myRunnable).start();

If you then want to change the parameter while the thread is running, you can simply add a setter method to your runnable class:

public void setMyParam(String value){
    this.myParam = value;
}

Once you have this, you can change the value of the parameter by calling like this:

myRunnable.setMyParam("Goodbye World");

Of course, if you want to trigger an action when the parameter is changed, you will have to use locks, which makes things considerably more complex.