JCheckBox

• When possible, you should give users a choice from a pre-defined list, rather than allow them to type text freeform.
• When users type text freeform, they tend to make mistakes, like misspellings.
• It is also hard to match input.  Imagine asking people what school they attend.  There are many different variations (and, unfortunately, misspellings) for the University of Cincinnati!
• Further, clicking a box is faster than typing text.
• A JCheckBox is a Swing component that comes with a label and has an on/off position.  For a group of JCheckBoxes, multiple JCheckBoxes can be checked at the same time.  This would be ideal for something like the toppings for a pizza, where the user can select none, all, or anywhere in between.
• Creating a JCheckBox is pretty easy.  Just specify the label value in the constructor, and then add it to the constructor.

JCheckBox chkCheese = new JCheckBox("Cheese");
pnlToppings.add(chkCheese);
• The isSelected() method of JTextBox returns true if the JTextBox is selected (or on), false if it is not.
• You can add a listener to a JCheckBox with its addActionListener(ActionListener l) method.  Then, in your ActionListener object, have the logic to be peformed when the JCheckBox is checked in the actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) method implementation.
• Or, just do it graphically with Forte'.


 JRadioButton
 

Created by:  Brandan Jones January 4, 2002