Question

Hi all i need to update a containers data for a sudoku game i am creating but am struggling to get the field to update with the new data.the container uses a grid layout and each cell contains a button with the appropriate number for sudoku in it and i need to know how to update the text in these buttons. any help with what methods i could use or any help in general would be greatly appreciated. please see the code i currently have to try and update below i know its probably messy and completely on the wrong track but ive just been trying to mess with stuff hoping it would work.

public void update(int[][] grid2)throws NullPointerException{
myGrid = new Container();
try{
  for(int i = 0; i<9; i++){
    for(int j = 0; j<9; j++){
      String appropriateNumber = convertSimple(grid2[i][j]);
      JButton button = new JButton(appropriateNumber);
      button.addActionListener(new sudokuListener());
      myGrid.add(button);
    }
  }
}
catch(NullPointerException e){

}
myGrid.setLayout(new GridLayout(9, 9));
myGrid.setPreferredSize (new Dimension(400, 400));

add(myGrid);
puzzleGUI.update();
}

puzzlGUI.update simply contains puzzle.validate() (puzzle being the GUI)

[edit]
ok i have changed things around a bit and used the JButton arrya as suggested and i have been able to set the text of the buttons in this array (i know through a system.out.print) but this does not update the text which is in the actual GUI. aaaaahhh coding is not fun at the end of a semester please help anyone

Answer 1

To re-iterate, if you have a grid of JButtons, why re-create them every time? Why not simply iterate through the components that are already in the grid and update their state, such as perhaps the text showing on the JButtons?

  for(int i = 0; i<9; i++){
    for(int j = 0; j<9; j++){
      String appropriateNumber = convertSimple(grid2[i][j]);
      someButtonArray[i][j].setText(appropriateNumber);

      // no longer need this stuff
      // JButton button = new JButton(appropriateNumber);
      // button.addActionListener(new sudokuListener());
      // myGrid.add(button);
    }
  }