Question

I have two classes in same package. i have declared a static variable in one class and want to access that variable in another class.

Here is my code in which i have declared the static variable

public class wampusGUI extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    static String userCommand;

    public wampusGUI() {
        initComponents();
    }

    public void setTextArea(String text) {
        displayTextArea.append(text);
    }

    private void enterButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
        userCommand = commandText.getText();
    }

    public static void main(String args[]) {
        /* Create and display the form */
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            public void run() {
                wampusGUI w = new wampusGUI();
                w.setVisible(true);
                Game g = new Game(w);
                g.play();
            }
        });
    }
}

Here is the code in which i want to access variable

public class Game {

    private wampusGUI gui;

    public Game(wampusGUI w) {
        world = new World();
        world.start();
        gui = w;
    }

    public void play() {
        gui.setTextArea(welcome());
        gui.setTextArea(describe());
        for (;;) {
            String s = userCommand; // here value should come should 
            System.out.println(userCommand);
            Command c = Command.create(s);
            String r = c.perform(world);
            // is game over?
            if (r == null) {
                break;
            }
            System.out.println(r);
        }
        System.out.println("Game over");
    }
}

However, i can pass the variable from first class as a argument. but the problem is that, when i will run program the value is going null first time, which i dont want. i want when i enter value in textfield then it should go to another class.

Thank you.

Answer 1

I suggest that you use a listener of one sort or another to allow the Game object to listen for and respond to changes in the state of the GUI object. There are several ways to do this, but one of the most elegant and useful I’ve found is to use Swing’s own innate PropertyChangeSupport to allow you to use PropertyChangeListeners. All Swing components will allow you to add a PropertyChangeListener to it. And so I suggest that you do this, that you have Game add one to your WampusGUI class (which should be capitalized) object like so:

public Game(WampusGUI w) {
  gui = w;

  gui.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {
     // ....
  }

This will allow Game to listen for changes in the gui’s state.

You’ll then want to make the gui’s userCommand String a “bound property” which means giving it a setter method that will fire the property change support notifying all listeners of change. I would do this like so:

public class WampusGUI extends JFrame {
   public static final String USER_COMMAND = "user command";
   // ....

   private void setUserCommand(String userCommand) {
      String oldValue = this.userCommand;
      String newValue = userCommand;
      this.userCommand = userCommand;
      firePropertyChange(USER_COMMAND, oldValue, newValue);
   } 

Then you would only change this String’s value via this setter method:

private void enterButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
  setUserCommand(commandText.getText());
}

The Game’s property change listener would then respond like so:

  gui.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {

     @Override
     public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent pcEvt) {

        // is the property being changed the one we're interested in?
        if (WampusGUI.USER_COMMAND.equals(pcEvt.getPropertyName())) {

           // get user command:
           String userCommand = pcEvt.getNewValue().toString();

           // then we can do with it what we want
           play(userCommand);

        }

     }
  });

One of the beauties of this technique is that the observed class, the GUI, doesn’t have to have any knowledge about the observer class (the Game). A small runnable example of this is like so:

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeListener;

import javax.swing.*;

public class WampusGUI extends JFrame {
   public static final String USER_COMMAND = "user command";
   private String userCommand;
   private JTextArea displayTextArea = new JTextArea(10, 30);
   private JTextField commandText = new JTextField(10);

   public WampusGUI() {
      initComponents();
   }

   private void setUserCommand(String userCommand) {
      String oldValue = this.userCommand;
      String newValue = userCommand;
      this.userCommand = userCommand;
      firePropertyChange(USER_COMMAND, oldValue, newValue);
   }

   private void initComponents() {
      displayTextArea.setEditable(false);
      displayTextArea.setFocusable(false);
      JButton enterButton = new JButton("Enter Command");
      enterButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

         @Override
         public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
            enterButtonActionPerformed(evt);
         }
      });
      JPanel commandPanel = new JPanel(); 
      commandPanel.add(commandText);
      commandPanel.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(15));
      commandPanel.add(enterButton);

      JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
      mainPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
      mainPanel.add(new JScrollPane(displayTextArea));
      mainPanel.add(commandPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
      add(mainPanel);
   }

   public void setTextArea(String text) {
      displayTextArea.append(text);
   }

   private void enterButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
      setUserCommand(commandText.getText());
   }

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
         public void run() {
            WampusGUI w = new WampusGUI();
            w.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
            w.pack();
            w.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
            w.setVisible(true);
            Game g = new Game(w);
            g.play();
         }
      });
   }
}

class Game {
   private WampusGUI gui;

   public Game(WampusGUI w) {
      gui = w;

      gui.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {

         @Override
         public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent pcEvt) {

            // is the property being changed the one we're interested in?
            if (WampusGUI.USER_COMMAND.equals(pcEvt.getPropertyName())) {

               // get user command:
               String userCommand = pcEvt.getNewValue().toString();

               // then we can do with it what we want
               play(userCommand);

            }
         }
      });
   }

   public void play() {
      gui.setTextArea("Welcome!\n");
      gui.setTextArea("Please enjoy the game!\n");
   }

   public void play(String userCommand) {
      // here we can do what we want with the String. For instance we can display it in the gui:
      gui.setTextArea("User entered: " + userCommand + "\n");
   }

}