+----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|              Runnable                  |                                           Callable<T>                                            |
+----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Introduced in Java 1.0 of java.lang    | Introduced in Java 1.5 of java.util.concurrent library                                           |
| Runnable cannot be parametrized        | Callable is a parametrized type whose type parameter indicates the return type of its run method |
| Runnable has run() method              | Callable has call() method                                                                       |
| Runnable.run() returns void            | Callable.call() returns a generic value V                                                        |
| No way to propagate checked exceptions | Callable's call()“throws Exception” clause so we can easily propagate checked exceptions further |                                                                     |
+----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Java的设计者觉得有必要扩展Runnable接口的功能，但他们不想影响Runnable接口的使用，这可能就是为什么他们在Java 1.5中使用一个单独的名为Callable的接口，而不是改变已经存在的Runnable接口的原因，因为Runnable接口自Java 1.0以来一直是Java的一部分。源

Java功能接口

它是一种与函数式编程相匹配的接口命名约定

//Runnable
interface Runnable {
    void run();
}

//Action - throws exception
interface Action {
    void run() throws Exception;
}

//Consumer - consumes a value/values, throws exception
//BiConsumer, 
interface Consumer1<T> {
    void accept(T t) throws Exception;
}

//Callable - return result, throws exception
interface Callable<R> {
    R call() throws Exception;
}

//Supplier - returns result, throws exception
interface Supplier<R> {
    R get() throws Exception;
}

//Predicate - consumes a value/values, returns true or false, throws exception
interface Predicate1<T> {
    boolean test(T t) throws Exception;
}

//Function - consumes a value/values, returns result, throws exception
//BiFunction, Function3...
public interface Function1<T, R> {
    R apply(T t) throws Exception;
}

...

//Executor
public interface Executor {
    void execute(Runnable command);
}

【快速闭包命名】

正如这里已经提到的，Callable是一个相对较新的接口，它是作为并发包的一部分引入的。Callable和Runnable都可以与执行器一起使用。Thread类(实现Runnable本身)只支持Runnable。

您仍然可以将Runnable与执行程序一起使用。Callable的优点是，你可以将它发送给executor，并立即得到Future结果，当执行完成时，Future结果将被更新。Runnable也可以实现同样的功能，但在这种情况下，您必须自己管理结果。例如，您可以创建保存所有结果的结果队列。其他线程可以等待这个队列并处理到达的结果。

Runnable和Callable在应用程序中的区别是什么?是否只与返回参数在Callable中存在差异?

基本上,是的。请看这个问题的答案。Callable的javadoc。

如果Callable能做Runnable能做的所有事情，那么两者都需要什么呢?

因为Runnable接口不能做Callable所做的所有事情!

Runnable has been around since Java 1.0, but Callable was only introduced in Java 1.5 ... to handle use-cases that Runnable does not support. In theory, the Java team could have changed the signature of the Runnable.run() method, but this would have broken binary compatiblity with pre-1.5 code, requiring recoding when migrating old Java code to newer JVMs. That is a BIG NO-NO. Java strives to be backwards compatible ... and that's been one of Java's biggest selling points for business computing.

显然，在某些用例中，任务不需要返回结果或抛出检查过的异常。对于这些用例，使用Runnable比使用Callable<Void>和从call()方法返回一个虚拟(null)值更简洁。

Callable和Runnable之间的区别如下:

在JDK 5.0中引入了Callable，而在JDK 1.0中引入了Runnable 可调用对象有call()方法，而Runnable有run()方法。 可调用对象有返回值的call方法，而可运行对象有不返回任何值的run方法。 调用方法可以抛出检查异常，但运行方法不能抛出检查异常。 可调用的使用submit()方法放入任务队列，可运行的使用execute()方法放入任务队列。

+----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|              Runnable                  |                                           Callable<T>                                            |
+----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Introduced in Java 1.0 of java.lang    | Introduced in Java 1.5 of java.util.concurrent library                                           |
| Runnable cannot be parametrized        | Callable is a parametrized type whose type parameter indicates the return type of its run method |
| Runnable has run() method              | Callable has call() method                                                                       |
| Runnable.run() returns void            | Callable.call() returns a generic value V                                                        |
| No way to propagate checked exceptions | Callable's call()“throws Exception” clause so we can easily propagate checked exceptions further |                                                                     |
+----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Java的设计者觉得有必要扩展Runnable接口的功能，但他们不想影响Runnable接口的使用，这可能就是为什么他们在Java 1.5中使用一个单独的名为Callable的接口，而不是改变已经存在的Runnable接口的原因，因为Runnable接口自Java 1.0以来一直是Java的一部分。源