Using threads in swing GUI in Java

I use the following code to replace a jlabel every 0.5 seconds, using the same sentence, but using another point

Runnable r1=new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            while(true){
                try {
                    connectionStatus.setText("Connection Established...");
                    Thread.sleep(500L);
                    connectionStatus.setText("Connection Established.");
                    Thread.sleep(500L);
                    connectionStatus.setText("Connection Established..");
                    Thread.sleep(500L);
                } catch (InterruptedException ex) {

                }
            }
        }
    };
Thread th1=new Thread(r1);
th1.start();

Is this the real purpose of using threads? Does this affect the speed of the program? If what I'm doing is so stupid, is there any other way to do it?

Solution

If you want these operations to run in parallel, the answer is yes

If you update labels at regular intervals, you should choose to use timers

In marginal note:

>You should avoid using while (true) when executing multithreading. You should define a stop Boolean to test in the loop, or use thread if you extend the thread class Interrupted() > when updating UI elements from non EDT threads, you should use swingutilities invokelater