Using Swing

Why does does a JPanel work in a main public class but not in the subclass?

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
//this is going to be used for the client\server function later on#
//<html>
//<Body>
//<applet code =JButtonGroups.class width = 500 height =200>
//</applet>
//</body>
//</html>
public class JButtonGroups extends JApplet {
sClass mClass;
 public void init(){

mClass = new sClass();
add(mClass);
 }
}

class sClass extends JPanel {
public void init(){

JPanel  mypan = new JPanel(); // we need this to put  
       //everything on
JPanel  mybutts = new JPanel();
JCheckBox myfirst = new JCheckBox("male");
JCheckBox mysecond = new JCheckBox("female");
JCheckBox mythird = new JCheckBox("None of your business");
ButtonGroup  sex = new  ButtonGroup();
//put the buttons on the ButtonGroup and add to the JPanel
    sex.add(myfirst);
    sex.add(mysecond);
    sex.add(mythird);
    mybutts.add(myfirst);
    mybutts.add(mysecond);
    mybutts.add(mythird);

EtchedBorder bread = new EtchedBorder();
mybutts.setBorder(new TitledBorder(bread,"What sex are you?"));
mypan.add(mybutts);
mybutts.setLayout(new GridLayout(0,1));
setContentPane(mypan);// puts the JPanel on the JApplet
  } // end init
} // end JButtonGroups

Moving this to the Swing / JFC / AWT forum...

It would help if you said why it didn't "work"...

I'm assuming that you mean that the components you're adding to the JPanel inner class aren't showing up. This is because you put them in a method called "init()" in the inner class. Only applets automatically call their init() method. You'll have to either change the inner class's init() method to a constructor, or call init() on the sClass instance after you create it.