External files

am trying to populate a JComboBox named choices from an external file. I have the import/read portion working because if I add System.out.println(name[ i ]); to the code it will print the contents of the file on the screen. Is the code below correct to populate the box? I get an error code of "cannot find symbol" with eiter get or setText.

CODE

choices.getText(loan [ i ]);

If you've got an existing JComboBox and you want to set its list of items to the contents of a String array, you could do this:

combo.setModel(new DefaultComboBoxModel(names));

or if you have the "names" array around when you first create the combo box, you can just say

combo = new JComboBox(names);

download a copy of the api docs, and you'll find (in JComboBox)

a method
public void addItem(Object anObject)

a constructor with an array as a parameter
public JComboBox(Object[] items)
"Creates a JComboBox that contains the elements in the specified array.
By default the first item in the array (and therefore the data model)
becomes selected. "

ok I am still lost here can someone edit this example from Sun to give me a better idea of what I am doing wrong? I can make it pull the data but not fill a combobox.

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
 
/* ComboBoxDemo2.java is a 1.4 application that requires no other files. */
public class ComboBoxDemo2 extends JPanel
                           implements ActionListener {
    static JFrame frame;
    JLabel result;
    String currentPattern;
 
    public ComboBoxDemo2() {
        setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
        String[] patternExamples = {
                 "dd MMMMM yyyy",
                 "dd.MM.yy",
                 "MM/dd/yy",
                 "yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' hh:mm:ss z",
                 "EEE, MMM d, ''yy",
                 "h:mm a",
                 "H:mm:ss:SSS",
                 "K:mm a,z",
                 "yyyy.MMMMM.dd GGG hh:mm aaa"
                 };
 
        currentPattern = patternExamples[0];
 
        //Set up the UI for selecting a pattern.
        JLabel patternLabel1 = new JLabel("Enter the pattern string or");
        JLabel patternLabel2 = new JLabel("select one from the list:");
 
        JComboBox patternList = new JComboBox(patternExamples);
        patternList.setEditable(true);
        patternList.addActionListener(this);
 
        //Create the UI for displaying result.
        JLabel resultLabel = new JLabel("Current Date/Time",
                                        JLabel.LEADING); //== LEFT
        result = new JLabel(" ");
        result.setForeground(Color.black);
        result.setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
             BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black),
             BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5)
        ));
 
        //Lay out everything.
        JPanel patternPanel = new JPanel();
        patternPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(patternPanel,
                               BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
        patternPanel.add(patternLabel1);
        patternPanel.add(patternLabel2);
        patternList.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
        patternPanel.add(patternList);
 
        JPanel resultPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1));
        resultPanel.add(resultLabel);
        resultPanel.add(result);
 
        patternPanel.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
        resultPanel.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
 
        add(patternPanel);
        add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 10)));
        add(resultPanel);
 
        setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10,10,10,10));
 
        reformat();
    } //constructor
 
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        JComboBox cb = (JComboBox)e.getSource();
        String newSelection = (String)cb.getSelectedItem();
        currentPattern = newSelection;
        reformat();
    }
 
    /** Formats and displays today's date. */
    public void reformat() {
        Date today = new Date();
        SimpleDateFormat formatter =
           new SimpleDateFormat(currentPattern);
        try {
            String dateString = formatter.format(today);
            result.setForeground(Color.black);
            result.setText(dateString);
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
            result.setForeground(Color.red);
            result.setText("Error: " + iae.getMessage());
        }
    }
 
    /**
     * Create the GUI and show it.  For thread safety,
     * this method should be invoked from the
     * event-dispatching thread.
     */
    private static void createAndShowGUI() {
        //Make sure we have nice window decorations.
        JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
 
        //Create and set up the window.
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("ComboBoxDemo2");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
 
        //Create and set up the content pane.
        JComponent newContentPane = new ComboBoxDemo2();
        newContentPane.setOpaque(true); //content panes must be opaque
        frame.setContentPane(newContentPane);
 
        //Display the window.
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
        //creating and showing this application's GUI.
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowGUI();
            }
        });
    }
}

I'm not sure what you're trying to do.

You have an editable comboBox, so I'm guessing you want the edited, or new,
value to be added to the drop-down list (when [enter] is hit)

if so, add this if statement to actionPerformed()