Using JComponent methods on a JComponent that was found using .getComponents()

[tashimoto]

Hello,

I am trying to create a class with methods that retrieve components from a container using .getComponents() and then find the values/settings of those components (example: isSelected() from JCheckBox, getText() from JTextField). I will be saving the values into a file for use later (as in saving user preferences).

import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Container;
import javax.swing.JCheckBox;
import javax.swing.JList;

public class WindowContent {
    
    private Component[] comp;
    private Container container;
    
    public WindowContent() {
        
    }
    
    public void saveWindowContent(Container cont) {
        container = cont;
        comp = container.getComponents();
        
        //I want to get values of JComponents that are in the container 
        //which will more than likely be a JPanel
        
        for (Component c : comp) {
            if (c instanceof JCheckBox) {
             //   c.isSelected();  
            }
            if (c instanceof JList) {
              // get values of JList  ... etc...
            }
        }
    }
}

Is there a better way to locate components within a container and still be able to use the method calls for that component? ( I can use .getName() and get the name of the component... is there a way to then use that to call the methods for that particular component?? )

Thank you in advance for any help/information/direction that you can provide.

Chris

[tashimoto]

I just found a reference in a book* that talks about "..casting each element of the array back to JCheckBox and call its isSelected() method..." (for those that don't know: getComponents() creates an array of references to the container's child components.)

I will read/search for more information about casting the elements back to their JComponent ...

*O'Reilly's Learning Java by patrick Niemeyer & Jonathan Knudsen (page.468)

[tashimoto]

Wow, I feel "dumb"... I referred back to my Java Text from class (Java Software Solutions 4th Edition by Lewis & Loftus) and on page 88 was my answer:

Casting (one of the basic lessons of java)
"A cast is a Java operator that is specified by a type name in parentheses. It is placed in front of the value to be converted."

Example:

Component comp = new Component();
JCheckBox checkbox = new JCheckBox();
checkbox = (JCheckBox) comp;

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Sometimes the solutions seems like it will be more complicated than it really is! :)