Question

Basically I wan’t to obtain a string from the user, I have created a class called “frames” in which I have a load of methods such as exitChoice(), infoPop(), ect… I wish to create one called getText(), and this is what I have so far:

        public String getText()
        {
            JDialog textBox = new JDialog(frame, "Save Name", true);

            JTextField inputField = new JTextField(18);
            inputField.setText(save == null ? "new save" : save.saveName);

            textBox.setBounds(width, height, 275, 70);
            textBox.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
            textBox.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
            textBox.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
            textBox.setResizable(false);
            textBox.add(inputField);
            textBox.setVisible(true);

            return inputField.getText();
        }

now I know this won’t work, It simply gets the game stuck and I have to terminate it externally, I also understand why it doesn’t work, that isn’t the problem, I also know how to add a JButton, an action listener and work it from there,

Basically I am trying to create a clean simple method which obtains a String from the user which is ALL contained within the method.

Ideally I would like to write a line which reads along the lines of

//EDIT: I know the method getText() does exist, sorry if it is misleading, I will ammend it

//String saveName = new JTextField.getText();
String saveName = new JTextInputGetterBoxThing();

but as far as I have found so far this doesn’t appear to exist, does anybody have any ideas? or ideally know of a one liner that I have missed?

Answer 1

I think what you want is the JOptionPane.showInputDialog method. Something like this?

public class GetUserInput {

    public static String getUserInput() {
        return JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Type Something");
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("User Input: " + getUserInput());
    }
}

This shows a dialog with the prompt “Type Something” and a text field for entry. Whatever the user types in the text field is returned by getUserInput().