eclipse rcp - Difference between syncExec() and asyncExec() of Display class

Question

I'm working on a plugin project in which I'm using Eclipse background processing.
What's the difference between the syncExec() and asyncExec() methods of the Display class? In which situations are they applicable? Any example could be helpful.

Answer 1

from Q: Why do I get the error "org.eclipse.swt.SWTException: Invalid thread access"?

To allow background threads to perform operations on objects belonging to the UI-thread, the methods syncExec(Runnable runnable) and asyncExec(Runnable runnable) of Display are used. These are the only methods in SWT that can be called from any thread. They allow a runnable to be executed by the UI-thread, either synchronously, causing the background thread to wait for the runnable to finish, or asynchronously allowing the background thread to continue execution without waiting for the result. A runnable that is executed using syncExec() most closely matches the equivalent direct call to the UI operation because a Java method call always waits for the result before proceeding, just like syncExec().