Swing I: How to use Swing

Swing is a Java package for creating graphical user interfaces (GUI). I will give you complete, runnable examples how you could use Swing. All examples are done in test.java

Basic examples

JFrame

The basic class is JFrame:

import javax.swing.JFrame;

public class test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("My title!");
        frame.setVisible(true);
        frame.setSize(200, 200);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }
}

You will get:

JPanel

You add your elements to a JPanel:

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;

public class test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("My title!");
        frame.setVisible(true);
        frame.setSize(300, 150);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        frame.add(panel);

        JLabel label = new JLabel("my label");
        panel.add(label);

        JButton button = new JButton("my button");
        panel.add(button);
    }
}

It looks like this:

Action Listeners

This is the most simple example of an ActionListener. When you click on the button, it creates a new JFrame.

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;

public class test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("My title!");
        frame.setVisible(true);
        frame.setSize(300, 150);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        frame.add(panel);

        JLabel label = new JLabel("my label");
        panel.add(label);

        JButton button = new JButton("my button");
        panel.add(button);
        button.addActionListener(new MyAction());
    }

    static class MyAction implements ActionListener {
        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            JFrame frame2 = new JFrame("clicked");
            frame2.setVisible(true);
            frame2.setSize(200,200);
        }
    }
}

Basic examples

JFrame

JPanel

Action Listeners

See also