CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaswingjbutton
Stansfield
Stansfield

Reputation: 23

How to grab text from a JButton when clicked?

I'm working on a game of hangman. I've created an array of 26 JButtons, each with a letter of the alphabet as its text. I want to grab a button's letter when it is clicked and assign it to a variable, so that it can be compared to letters in the string being guessed. Here is the code for the ActionListener and its attachment to each of the buttons in a loop ("letters" is the array of JButtons).

public class Hangman extends JFrame
{
    private JButton[] letters = new JButton[26];
    private String[] alphabet = {"A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J",
            "K", "L", "M", "N", "O", "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T",
            "U", "V", "W", "X", "Y", "Z"};
    //letters are assigned to JButtons in enhanced for loop
    private String letter;

        class ClickListener extends JButton implements ActionListener
        {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
            {
                  //this is where I want to grab and assign the text
                  letter = this.getText();
                 //I also want to disable the button upon being clicked
            }   
        }

       for(int i = 0; i < 26; i++)
       {
           letters[i].addActionListener(new ClickListener());
           gamePanel.add(letters[i]);
       }
}

Thanks for your help! This is my first time posting; it's for my final project for Computer Science I!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1811

Answers (1)

MadProgrammer
MadProgrammer

Reputation: 347334

The immediate problem I think you're having has to do with how you've desiged your ClickListener

class ClickListener extends JButton implements ActionListener
{
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
    {
      //this is where I want to grab and assign the text
      letter = this.getText();
      checker(word, letter); //this compares with the hangman word
      setEnabled(false);//I want to disable the button after it is clicked
    }   
}


for(int i = 0; i < 26; i++)
{
    // When you do this, ClickListener is a NEW instance of a JButton with no
    // text, meaning that when you click the button and the actionPerformed
    // method is called, this.getText() will return an empty String.
    letters[i].addActionListener(new ClickListener());
    gamePanel.add(letters[i]);
}

There is no need for the listener to extend from JButton

class ClickListener implements ActionListener
{
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
    {
      letter = ((JButton)event.getSource()).getText();
      checker(word, letter); //this compares with the hangman word
      setEnabled(false);//I want to disable the button after it is clicked
    }   
}

Now, personally, I don't like doing blind casts like this...A better solution would be to use the actionCommand property...

ClickListener handler = new ClickListener();
for(int i = 0; i < 26; i++)
{
    letters[i].setActionCommand(letters[i].getText());
    letters[i].addActionListener(handler);
    gamePanel.add(letters[i]);
}

class ClickListener implements ActionListener
{
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
    {
      letter = event.getActionCommand();
      checker(word, letter); //this compares with the hangman word
      setEnabled(false);//I want to disable the button after it is clicked
    }   
}

Upvotes: 3

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