在Android中可以通过Handler来更新主线程中UI的变化，更新UI只能在主线程中进行更新，而为了让其他线程也能控制UI的变化，Android提供了一种机制Handler、Looper与MessageQueue一同协作来达到其他线程更新UI的目的。

一般我们会在主线程中通过如下方法定义一个Handler

private Handler mHandler = new Handler() {        @Override        public void handleMessage(Message msg) {            tv.setText("mHandler change UI");            super.handleMessage(msg);        }    };

一般都见不到Looper与MessageQueue的，那么它们都是在哪里调用与如何协作的呢？在主线程不会显式的调用Looper而是会在ActivityThread.main方法中默认调用。

ActivityThread.main

public static void main(String[] args) {         Trace.traceBegin(Trace.TRACE_TAG_ACTIVITY_MANAGER, "ActivityThreadMain");        SamplingProfilerIntegration.start();         // CloseGuard defaults to true and can be quite spammy.  We        // disable it here, but selectively enable it later (via        // StrictMode) on debug builds, but using DropBox, not logs.        CloseGuard.setEnabled(false);         Environment.initForCurrentUser();         // Set the reporter for event logging in libcore        EventLogger.setReporter(new EventLoggingReporter());         // Make sure TrustedCertificateStore looks in the right place for CA certificates        final File configDir = Environment.getUserConfigDirectory(UserHandle.myUserId());         TrustedCertificateStore.setDefaultUserDirectory(configDir);         Process.setArgV0("");         Looper.prepareMainLooper();//创建Looper         ActivityThread thread = new ActivityThread();        thread.attach(false);         if (sMainThreadHandler == null) {            sMainThreadHandler = thread.getHandler();        }         if (false) {            Looper.myLooper().setMessageLogging(new                    LogPrinter(Log.DEBUG, "ActivityThread"));        }         // End of event ActivityThreadMain.         Trace.traceEnd(Trace.TRACE_TAG_ACTIVITY_MANAGER);        Looper.loop();//开启Looper循环         throw new RuntimeException("Main thread loop unexpectedly exited");    }

如上代码，调用了Looper.prepareMainLooper()方法，在主线程中创建了一个Looper，不信的话我们再查看该方法做了什么

Looper

prepare

public static void prepare() {        prepare(true);    }     private static void prepare(boolean quitAllowed) {        if (sThreadLocal.get() != null) {            throw new RuntimeException("Only one Looper may be created per thread");        }        sThreadLocal.set(new Looper(quitAllowed));//创建Looper并赋给sThreadLocal    }     /**     * Initialize the current thread as a looper, marking it as an     * application's main looper. The main looper for your application     * is created by the Android environment, so you should never need     * to call this function yourself.  See also: {@link #prepare()}     */    public static void prepareMainLooper() {        prepare(false);        synchronized (Looper.class) {            if (sMainLooper != null) {                throw new IllegalStateException("The main Looper has already been prepared.");            }            sMainLooper = myLooper();        }    }         public static @Nullable Looper myLooper() {        return sThreadLocal.get();    }

在prepareMainLooper方法中调用了prepare而通过prepare会发现它其实就是创建了一个Looper，并把它赋给了sThreadLocal。同时可以通过myLooper方法获取当前线程中的Looper。再来看下new Looper(quitAllowed)初始化了什么

private Looper(boolean quitAllowed) {        mQueue = new MessageQueue(quitAllowed);        mThread = Thread.currentThread();    }

在这里我们终于看到了MessageQueue了，它创建了一个MessageQueue。该消息队列就是用来保存后续的Message。再回到ActivityThread.main方法中，发现它调用了Looper.loop()是用来开启Looper循环的，监听消息队列MessageQueue中的消息。

loop

我们来看下Looper.loop()的源码：

public static void loop() {        final Looper me = myLooper();//获取Looper        if (me == null) {            throw new RuntimeException("No Looper; Looper.prepare() wasn't called on this thread.");        }        final MessageQueue queue = me.mQueue;//获取消息队列         // Make sure the identity of this thread is that of the local process,        // and keep track of what that identity token actually is.        Binder.clearCallingIdentity();        final long ident = Binder.clearCallingIdentity();         for (;;) {                    Message msg = queue.next(); // might block            if (msg == null) {                // No message indicates that the message queue is quitting.                return;            }             // This must be in a local variable, in case a UI event sets the logger            final Printer logging = me.mLogging;            if (logging != null) {                logging.println(">>>>> Dispatching to " + msg.target + " " +                        msg.callback + ": " + msg.what);            }             final long traceTag = me.mTraceTag;            if (traceTag != 0) {                Trace.traceBegin(traceTag, msg.target.getTraceName(msg));            }            try {                msg.target.dispatchMessage(msg);//通过Handler分发消息            } finally {                if (traceTag != 0) {                    Trace.traceEnd(traceTag);                }            }             if (logging != null) {                logging.println("<<<<< Finished to " + msg.target + " " + msg.callback);            }             // Make sure that during the course of dispatching the            // identity of the thread wasn't corrupted.            final long newIdent = Binder.clearCallingIdentity();            if (ident != newIdent) {                Log.wtf(TAG, "Thread identity changed from 0x"                        + Long.toHexString(ident) + " to 0x"                        + Long.toHexString(newIdent) + " while dispatching to "                        + msg.target.getClass().getName() + " "                        + msg.callback + " what=" + msg.what);            }             msg.recycleUnchecked();        }    }

在loop中首先获取了当前所在线程的Looper，同时也获取到了Looper中的MessageQueue，说明Looper已经与当前的线程进行了绑定。在后面开启了一个for的死循环，发现它做的事件是不断的从消息队列中取出消息，最后都交给msg.target调用它的dispatchMessage方法，那么target又是什么呢？我们进入Message

Message

/*package*/ int flags;    /*package*/ long when;        /*package*/ Bundle data;        /*package*/ Handler target;        /*package*/ Runnable callback;        // sometimes we store linked lists of these things    /*package*/ Message next;

发现它就是我们熟悉的Handler，说明最后调用的就是Handler中的dispatchMessage方法，对消息的分发处理。这样一来Handler就通过Looper联系上了Looper所绑定的线程，即为主线程。

Handler

public Handler(Callback callback, boolean async) {        if (FIND_POTENTIAL_LEAKS) {            final Class<? extends Handler> klass = getClass();            if ((klass.isAnonymousClass() || klass.isMemberClass() || klass.isLocalClass()) &&                    (klass.getModifiers() & Modifier.STATIC) == 0) {                Log.w(TAG, "The following Handler class should be static or leaks might occur: " +                    klass.getCanonicalName());            }        }         mLooper = Looper.myLooper();        if (mLooper == null) {            throw new RuntimeException(                "Can't create handler inside thread that has not called Looper.prepare()");        }        mQueue = mLooper.mQueue;        mCallback = callback;        mAsynchronous = async;    }

通过Handler的初始化，它获取了它所处线程的Looper，同时也获取了Looper中的消息队列。当然如果所处线程的Looper为空的话就会抛出异常，这就解释了为什么在非主线程中创建Handler要分别调用Looper.prepare与Looper.loop而主线程则不需要，因为它默认已经调用了。

dispatchMessage

public void dispatchMessage(Message msg) {        if (msg.callback != null) {            handleCallback(msg);        } else {            if (mCallback != null) {                if (mCallback.handleMessage(msg)) {                    return;                }            }            handleMessage(msg);        }    }private static void handleCallback(Message message) {        message.callback.run();    }

回到前面，对于dispatchMessage的处理，首先判断msg.callback是否为空，这里callback通过上面的Message应该能知道他就是一个Runnable，如果不为空则直接调用Runnable的run方法。否则调用Handler的handleMessage方法.而这个方法相信大家已经很熟悉了，对事件的处理都是在这个方法中执行的。因为通过前面我们已经知道了Handler已经联系上了主线程，所以handleMessage中的处理自然相对于在主线程中进行，自然也能更新UI了。通过这里我们能把Looper比作是一个桥梁，来连接Looper所在的线程与Handler之间的通信，同时管理消息队列MessageQueue中的消息。那么前面的Runnable又是如何不为空的呢？我们使用Handler有两种方法，一种是直接创建一个Handler并且重写它的handleMessage方法，而另一种可以通过Handler.post(Runnable)来使用，这样事件的处理自然就在run方法中实现。

上面介绍了Handler是如何联系上了需要操作的线程与对消息是如何取出与处理的。下面来谈谈消息是如何放入到Looper中的MessageQueue中的。

sendMessageAtTime

通过Handler发送消息的方式很多，例如：sendMessage、sendEmptyMessage与sendMessageDelayed等，其实到最后他们调用的都是sendMessageAtTime方法。所以还是来看下sendMessageAtTime方法中的实现。

public boolean sendMessageAtTime(Message msg, long uptimeMillis) {        MessageQueue queue = mQueue;        if (queue == null) {            RuntimeException e = new RuntimeException(                    this + " sendMessageAtTime() called with no mQueue");            Log.w("Looper", e.getMessage(), e);            return false;        }        return enqueueMessage(queue, msg, uptimeMillis);    }

而sendMessageAtTime则就是调用了enqueueMessage操作，看这方法名就知道是入队列操作了。

enqueueMessage

private boolean enqueueMessage(MessageQueue queue, Message msg, long uptimeMillis) {        msg.target = this;        if (mAsynchronous) {            msg.setAsynchronous(true);        }        return queue.enqueueMessage(msg, uptimeMillis);    }

果不其然直接调用了MessageQueue中的queue.enqueueMessage(msg, uptimeMillis)将消息加入消息队列，同时这段代码msg.target = this 将当前的Handler赋给了msg.target,这就是前面所说的Looper.loop方法中调用的Handler。这样就把消息放到了MessageQueue中，进而通过前面所讲的loop来取出消息进行相应的处理，这样就构成了整个对消息进行处理的系统。这也是使用Handler内部所发生的原理。好了Handler、Looper与MessageQueue它们之间的联系基本就是这些了。我也简单画了张图希望有所帮助

总结

来总结下它们之间的流程。首先创建Handler而在Handler所处的线程中必须要有一个Looper，如果在主线程中默认帮我们实现了，其他线程必须调用Looper.prepare来创建Looper同时调用Looper.loop开启对消息的处理。每个Looper中都有一个MessageQueue它是用来存储Message的，Handler通过post或者send..等一系列操作通过Looper将消息放入到消息队列中，而Looper通过开启一个无限的循环来一直监听着消息的处理，不断从MessageQueue中取出消息，并交给与当前Looper所绑定的handler的dispatchMessage进行分发，最后根据情况调用Runnable的run或者Handler的HandlerMessage方法对消息进行最后的处理。

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Handler、Looper与MessageQueue源码分析