Get a Swing component by name

I know this is an old question, but I found myself asking it just now. I wanted an easy way to get components by name so I didn't have to write some convoluted code each time to access different components. For example, having a JButton access the text in a text field or a selection in a List.

The easiest solution is to make all of the component variables be class variables so that you can access them anywhere. However, not everyone wants to do that, and some (like myself) are using GUI Editors that don't generate the components as class variables.

My solution is simple, I'd like to think, and doesn't really violate any programming standards, as far as I know (referencing what fortran was getting at). It allows for an easy and straightforward way to access components by name.

Create a Map class variable. You'll need to import HashMap at the very least. I named mine componentMap for simplicity.
```
private HashMap componentMap;
```

Add all of your components to the frame as normal.

initialize() {
    //add your components and be sure
    //to name them.
    ...
    //after adding all the components,
    //call this method we're about to create.
    createComponentMap();
}

Define the following two methods in your class. You'll need to import Component if you haven't already:

private void createComponentMap() {
        componentMap = new HashMap<String,Component>();
        Component[] components = yourForm.getContentPane().getComponents();
        for (int i=0; i < components.length; i++) {
                componentMap.put(components[i].getName(), components[i]);
        }
}

public Component getComponentByName(String name) {
        if (componentMap.containsKey(name)) {
                return (Component) componentMap.get(name);
        }
        else return null;
}

Now you've got a HashMap that maps all the currently existing components in your frame/content pane/panel/etc to their respective names.
To now access these components, it is as simple as a call to getComponentByName(String name). If a component with that name exists, it will return that component. If not, it returns null. It is your responsibility to cast the component to the proper type. I suggest using instanceof to be sure.

If you plan on adding, removing, or renaming components at any point during runtime, I would consider adding methods that modify the HashMap according to your changes.

getComponentByName(frame, name)

IF you're using NetBeans or another IDE that by default creates private variables (fields) to hold all of your AWT/Swing components, then the following code may work for you. Use as follows:

// get a button (or other component) by name
JButton button = Awt1.getComponentByName(someOtherFrame, "jButton1");

// do something useful with it (like toggle it's enabled state)
button.setEnabled(!button.isEnabled());

Here's the code to make the above possible...

import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Window;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;

/**
 * additional utilities for working with AWT/Swing.
 * this is a single method for demo purposes.
 * recommended to be combined into a single class
 * module with other similar methods,
 * e.g. MySwingUtilities
 * 
 * @author http://javajon.blogspot.com/2013/07/java-awtswing-getcomponentbynamewindow.html
 */
public class Awt1 {

    /**
     * attempts to retrieve a component from a JFrame or JDialog using the name
     * of the private variable that NetBeans (or other IDE) created to refer to
     * it in code.
     * @param <T> Generics allow easier casting from the calling side.
     * @param window JFrame or JDialog containing component
     * @param name name of the private field variable, case sensitive
     * @return null if no match, otherwise a component.
     */
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    static public <T extends Component> T getComponentByName(Window window, String name) {

        // loop through all of the class fields on that form
        for (Field field : window.getClass().getDeclaredFields()) {

            try {
                // let us look at private fields, please
                field.setAccessible(true);

                // compare the variable name to the name passed in
                if (name.equals(field.getName())) {

                    // get a potential match (assuming correct &lt;T&gt;ype)
                    final Object potentialMatch = field.get(window);

                    // cast and return the component
                    return (T) potentialMatch;
                }

            } catch (SecurityException | IllegalArgumentException 
                    | IllegalAccessException ex) {

                // ignore exceptions
            }

        }

        // no match found
        return null;
    }

}

It uses reflection to look through the class fields to see if it can find a component that is referred to by a variable of the same name.

NOTE: The code above uses generics to cast the results to whatever type you are expecting, so in some cases you may have to be explicit about type casting. For example if myOverloadedMethod accepts both JButton and JTextField, you may need to explicitly define the overload you wish to call ...

myOverloadedMethod((JButton) Awt1.getComponentByName(someOtherFrame, "jButton1"));

And if you're not sure, you can get an Component and check it with instanceof...

// get a component and make sure it's a JButton before using it
Component component = Awt1.getComponentByName(someOtherFrame, "jButton1");
if (component instanceof JButton) {
    JButton button = (JButton) component;
    // do more stuff here with button
}

Hope this helps!

Each Component can have a name, accessed via getName() and setName(), but you'll have to write your own lookup function.

Get a Swing component by name

Tags:

Java

Swing

Jframe

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