obtaining mouse pointer position within a document

[kamilla miesak]

Hello,
I'm trying to find out how to obtain mouse pointer position within a document and then translate it to line and character number. This functionality exists in many applications, i.e. JBuilder or TextPad.
I've been searching Java API for a solution, but I haven't found one yet.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Kamilla

[John Dale]

I assume that by mouse position, you mean the little vertical bar left when you click on a text componenent with the mouse, which is called the caret. It's location is called the dot.
Assuming you are working with a subclass of JTextComponent, try
int offset= textComponent.getCaret().getDot();
That gives you the character offset from the beginning of the document to the dot.
Then, if you are working with a JTextArea, you can use
int line = textArea.getLineOfOffset(offset);
If not using JTextArea, but PlainDocument or another Document organized the same way, you might try
int line = component.getDocument().getDefaultRootElement().getElementIndex(offset);
As for StyledDocuments, I don't know, and don't have my books here.

[kamilla miesak]

Thank you very much!
JTextComponent was one of the classes I looked at, but I had no idea that the term "caret" was what I should have been looking for.
Thanks again!

[kamilla miesak]

I have another question:
is there a way to get an offset within a specific line as oppose to an offset for an entire JTextArea. When I do:
int offset= JTextArea.getCaret().getDot();
int line = JTextArea.getLineOfOffset(offset);
I do get correct line numbers, but the offset of the last character from a previous line is being carried over to the next line and calculated continuosly for the entire document.
I've tried couple of ways to calculate it separately, but nothing worked so far.
Thank you