Getting text from JTextFields located inside a panel

[aianta]

I have this cell class which contains a method that generates a gui for an object of said class. see below:

        public class Cell

        private JTextField textfield[];
	private JLabel labels[];
	private JLabel Title;
        ...
        public JPanel createGUI (int cell_length){
		
		JPanel panel = new JPanel();
		
		textfield = new JTextField [cell_length];
		labels = new JLabel [cell_length];
		Title = new JLabel (this.getCellName());
		panel.add(Title);
		
		for (int i = 0; i < textfield.length; i++){
			textfield[i] = new JTextField(15);
			labels[i] = new JLabel("Word "+(i+1)+":");
			panel.add(labels[i]);
			panel.add(textfield[i]);
		}
		
		return panel;
	}

That panel is then attached to a JFrame by the GUI class:

public GUI_001 ()
	{
		super("Create Cells");
		setLayout( new FlowLayout() );

		j = this.askNumberofCells();
		
		cells = new Cell [j];
		
		q = this.askCellLength();
		
		for (int i = 0; i < cells.length; i++){
			
			cells[i] = new Cell(q) ;
			cells[i].setCellName(this.askCellName(j,(i+1)));
			add(cells[i].createGUI(q));
		}
		
		submit = new JButton ("Submit");
		add(submit);
	}

I am currently trying to write a handler that does the following:

When the submit button is pressed the JPanels of each Cell get their JTextField's text and store it in their instance of an array called words which already has the appropriate size.

I am currently stuck at the part where I need to access the Jtextfields in each panel. so something like this:

for (int i = 0; i < panelsOnScreen.length[]; i++){
cell_1.getWords[i] = panelsOnScreen[i].jtextfields[i].getText;
}

How would I go about doing this?

Searching the interwebs suggested using a List to keep track of the panels and JTextFields. The later using those references to getText(); However I haven't ever used Lists before and don't know how they work :( So, if lists are involved in a solution, please give an example of how you declared one and added the panels/text fields to it.

Thanks in advance!

[Norm]

Have you looked at the API doc for ArrayLists for example.
Or the tutorial. Go to this page and Find List Implementations:
The Really Big Index

[aianta]

Alright, Ive added an ArrayList to keep track of the panels being added:

import java.util.ArrayList;
           ...
           public static  ArrayList panels;
           ...
	public JPanel createGUI (int cell_length){
		
		JPanel panel = new JPanel();
		
		textfield = new JTextField [cell_length];
		labels = new JLabel [cell_length];
		Title = new JLabel (this.getCellName());
		panel.add(Title);
		
		for (int i = 0; i < textfield.length; i++){
			textfield[i] = new JTextField(15);
			labels[i] = new JLabel("Word "+(i+1)+":");
			panel.add(labels[i]);
			panel.add(textfield[i]);
		}
		
		[B]panels.add(panel);[/B]
		return panel;
	}

is there a way to access the panels components via a call like this:

panels.get(i).component.componentMethod

[Norm]

is there a way to access the panels components via a call like this:

Possibly. Write a small section of code and see what the compiler says.
Personally, I'd split the chained code up into separate statements.

[Fubarable]

I recommend that your classes use more OOP. Rather than muck through a container hierarchy that could and often will change, why not give your Cell class public getter methods to get the text held by the fields it holds. For instance please check my answer in this thread here on StackOverflow: sending-messages-between-two-jpanel-objects.

I'm hovercraft in that thread.