Trying to use 1 action listener for multiple buttons

Question

So I am trying to code a jeopardy game, but the catch is that I am only trying to assign my buttons to 1 action listener so that all buttons function on their own yet work from 1 action listener.

I've tried a lot, nothing works! package jep;

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.io.File;

import javax.sound.sampled.AudioSystem;
import javax.sound.sampled.Clip;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

public class jep implements ActionListener{


   public  JButton[][] t = new JButton[6][6];

public static void main(String[] args) {
    new jep();
    }
static int n = 100;

public jep() {


    JFrame frame = new JFrame("Jeopardy");
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);   
    frame.setSize(1920,1080);
    frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(6, 5));
    frame.setVisible(true);
    for (int r = 0; r < 6; r++) {
        for (int c = 0; c < 5; c++) {
            String vakue = String.valueOf(n);
            t[r][c] = new JButton(vakue);
            t[r][c].setBackground(Color.BLUE);
            t[r][c].setForeground(Color.YELLOW);
            t[r][c].addActionListener(this);
            frame.add(t[r][c]);
        }
        n = n +300;
    }

@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub

}

I am trying to get it so that i can click multiple buttons using only 1 action listener but all i can get is a grid

Answer 1

Here is the corrected code with print to console on button press. Please, check the comments in the code:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

public class Jep implements ActionListener { // class name has to start with a capital letter

    int i = 6;
    int j = 5;

    public JButton[][] t = new JButton[i][j];

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Jep();
    }

    static int n = 100;

    public Jep() {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Jeopardy");

        JPanel[][] panelHolder = new JPanel[i][j]; // use panels to add you buttons, check this for details:
        // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2510159/can-i-add-a-component-to-a-specific-grid-cell-when-a-gridlayout-is-used

        frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(i, j));
        frame.setVisible(true);

        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setSize(1920, 1080);


        frame.setVisible(true);
        for (int r = 0; r < 6; r++) {
            for (int c = 0; c < 5; c++) {
                String vakue = String.valueOf(n);
                t[r][c] = new JButton(vakue);
                t[r][c].setBackground(Color.BLUE);
                t[r][c].setForeground(Color.BLACK);
                t[r][c].addActionListener(this);

                panelHolder[r][c] = new JPanel();

                panelHolder[r][c].add(t[r][c]);

                frame.add(panelHolder[r][c]);

                n = n + 300;
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
        System.out.println("press, value = " + arg0.getActionCommand()); // here is a simple system out log statement
    }
}

Output(when you press several buttons):

press, value = 100
press, value = 400
press, value = 700
press, value = 1000
press, value = 1300
press, value = 1600

App Winodow:

Hope this will help.

Answer 2

You can use AbstractButton (superclass of JButton).setActionCommand, and then in your listener using action command you can figure out your row and column

Instead of creating a 6 x 6 array of JButtons, you ought to use JTable, set the renderer to render your cells values as buttons (or something else) and as recommended here add a listSelectionListener to the tablemodel to get the row and the column values on click. As recommended here: Get position of Click JTable while using Cell renderer

Learning JTable and how to use renders etc can take a little time. But I assume that for this question you are in a learning environment anyway, that this is not something being done for business, or? So I would recommend you take the time to learn JTable. You will end up being much happier with your final product I promise you.