Using Components

In Java, every part of a GUI is represented by a class in the Swing package. There is a JButton class for buttons, a JWindow class for windows, a JTextField class for text fields, and so on.

To create and display an interface, you create objects, set their variables, and call their methods. The techniques are the same as those you used during the previous three hours as you were introduced to object-oriented programming (OOP).

When you are putting a GUI together, you work with two kinds of objects: components and containers. A component is an individual element in a user interface, such as a button or slider. A container is a component that you can use to hold other components.

The first step in creating an interface is to create ...

Get Sams Teach Yourself Java™ in 24 Hours, Sixth Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.