我发现做到这一点的最短和最简单的方法是利用Python类及其动态属性。您可以使用threading.current_thread()从派生线程的上下文中检索当前线程，并将返回值赋给一个属性。

import threading

def some_target_function():
    # Your code here.
    threading.current_thread().return_value = "Some return value."

your_thread = threading.Thread(target=some_target_function)
your_thread.start()
your_thread.join()

return_value = your_thread.return_value
print(return_value)

Parris / kindall的answer join/return answer移植到Python 3:

from threading import Thread

def foo(bar):
    print('hello {0}'.format(bar))
    return "foo"

class ThreadWithReturnValue(Thread):
    def __init__(self, group=None, target=None, name=None, args=(), kwargs=None, *, daemon=None):
        Thread.__init__(self, group, target, name, args, kwargs, daemon=daemon)

        self._return = None

    def run(self):
        if self._target is not None:
            self._return = self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)

    def join(self):
        Thread.join(self)
        return self._return


twrv = ThreadWithReturnValue(target=foo, args=('world!',))

twrv.start()
print(twrv.join())   # prints foo

注意，Thread类在Python 3中实现的方式不同。

这是我根据@Kindall的回答创建的版本。

这个版本使得您所要做的就是输入带有参数的命令来创建新线程。

这是用Python 3.8做的:

from threading import Thread
from typing import Any

def test(plug, plug2, plug3):
    print(f"hello {plug}")
    print(f'I am the second plug : {plug2}')
    print(plug3)
    return 'I am the return Value!'

def test2(msg):
    return f'I am from the second test: {msg}'

def test3():
    print('hello world')

def NewThread(com, Returning: bool, *arguments) -> Any:
    """
    Will create a new thread for a function/command.

    :param com: Command to be Executed
    :param arguments: Arguments to be sent to Command
    :param Returning: True/False Will this command need to return anything
    """
    class NewThreadWorker(Thread):
        def __init__(self, group = None, target = None, name = None, args = (), kwargs = None, *,
                     daemon = None):
            Thread.__init__(self, group, target, name, args, kwargs, daemon = daemon)
            
            self._return = None
        
        def run(self):
            if self._target is not None:
                self._return = self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
        
        def join(self):
            Thread.join(self)
            return self._return
    
    ntw = NewThreadWorker(target = com, args = (*arguments,))
    ntw.start()
    if Returning:
        return ntw.join()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(NewThread(test, True, 'hi', 'test', test2('hi')))
    NewThread(test3, True)

我见过的一种方法是将一个可变对象(如列表或字典)传递给线程的构造函数，同时传递一个索引或其他某种类型的标识符。然后线程可以将结果存储在该对象的专用槽中。例如:

def foo(bar, result, index):
    print 'hello {0}'.format(bar)
    result[index] = "foo"

from threading import Thread

threads = [None] * 10
results = [None] * 10

for i in range(len(threads)):
    threads[i] = Thread(target=foo, args=('world!', results, i))
    threads[i].start()

# do some other stuff

for i in range(len(threads)):
    threads[i].join()

print " ".join(results)  # what sound does a metasyntactic locomotive make?

如果你真的想要join()返回被调用函数的返回值，你可以用Thread子类来实现，如下所示:

from threading import Thread

def foo(bar):
    print 'hello {0}'.format(bar)
    return "foo"

class ThreadWithReturnValue(Thread):
    def __init__(self, group=None, target=None, name=None,
                 args=(), kwargs={}, Verbose=None):
        Thread.__init__(self, group, target, name, args, kwargs, Verbose)
        self._return = None
    def run(self):
        if self._Thread__target is not None:
            self._return = self._Thread__target(*self._Thread__args,
                                                **self._Thread__kwargs)
    def join(self):
        Thread.join(self)
        return self._return

twrv = ThreadWithReturnValue(target=foo, args=('world!',))

twrv.start()
print twrv.join()   # prints foo

这有点麻烦，因为一些名称混乱，它访问特定于线程实现的“私有”数据结构……但它确实有效。

对于Python 3:

class ThreadWithReturnValue(Thread):
    
    def __init__(self, group=None, target=None, name=None,
                 args=(), kwargs={}, Verbose=None):
        Thread.__init__(self, group, target, name, args, kwargs)
        self._return = None

    def run(self):
        if self._target is not None:
            self._return = self._target(*self._args,
                                                **self._kwargs)
    def join(self, *args):
        Thread.join(self, *args)
        return self._return

你可以使用ThreadPool()的pool.apply_async()来返回test()的值，如下所示:

from multiprocessing.pool import ThreadPool

def test(num1, num2):
    return num1 + num2

pool = ThreadPool(processes=1) # Here
result = pool.apply_async(test, (2, 3)) # Here
print(result.get()) # 5

并且，你也可以使用concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor()的submit()来返回test()的值，如下所示:

from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor

def test(num1, num2):
    return num1 + num2

with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=1) as executor:
    future = executor.submit(test, 2, 3) # Here
print(future.result()) # 5

并且，代替返回，你可以使用数组结果，如下所示:

from threading import Thread

def test(num1, num2, r):
    r[0] = num1 + num2 # Instead of "return"

result = [None] # Here

thread = Thread(target=test, args=(2, 3, result))
thread.start()
thread.join()
print(result[0]) # 5

而不是返回，你也可以使用队列结果，如下所示:

from threading import Thread
import queue

def test(num1, num2, q):
    q.put(num1 + num2) # Instead of "return" 

queue = queue.Queue() # Here

thread = Thread(target=test, args=(2, 3, queue))
thread.start()
thread.join()
print(queue.get()) # '5'

如上所述，多处理池比基本线程要慢得多。使用一些回答中提出的队列是一种非常有效的替代方法。我已经将它与字典一起使用，以便能够运行许多小线程，并通过将它们与字典结合来恢复多个答案:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import threading
# use Queue for python2
import queue
import random

LETTERS = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
LETTERS = [ x for x in LETTERS ]

NUMBERS = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

def randoms(k, q):
    result = dict()
    result['letter'] = random.choice(LETTERS)
    result['number'] = random.choice(NUMBERS)
    q.put({k: result})

threads = list()
q = queue.Queue()
results = dict()

for name in ('alpha', 'oscar', 'yankee',):
    threads.append( threading.Thread(target=randoms, args=(name, q)) )
    threads[-1].start()
_ = [ t.join() for t in threads ]
while not q.empty():
    results.update(q.get())

print(results)