How to change what a button does?

Question

I am currently creating a game in Java using Swing. I have a button, and once it does one thing, I want it's action to change. I have tried if statements, if-else statements, while loops, and various other things, and I can't get it to work. Anyone know how to do something like this?

Everyone knows how to do something like this. You need to provide a bit more info (and probably code) so we can help you out... — John3136, Jan 08 '14 at 01:10

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 08 '14 at 01:12

4

Create a class level attribute along the lines of:

boolean buttonHasFiredOnce = false;

In the action performed method, put code like:

if (!buttonHasFiredOnce) { 
  doFirstMethod();
  buttonHasFiredOnce = true;
} else {
  doSecondMethod();
}

answered Jan 08 '14 at 01:12

Andrew Thompson

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If you cannot get it to work from that tip: post an [SSCCE](http://sscce.org/) of your best attempt. It should only require about 20 lines of code. – Andrew Thompson Jan 08 '14 at 01:14

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 08 '14 at 03:29

I would suggest replacing the ActionListener

public static void changeAction(JButton button, ActionListener al) {
    for (ActionListener listener: button.getActionListeners()) {
        button.removeActionListener(listener);
    }
    button.addActionListener(al);
}

then when you want the action to change...

changeAction(button, new ActionListener() {
     @Override
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
         //Insert Action Code
     }
});

How to change what a button does?

2 Answers2