Using Object Types

[Amy Phillips]

Hi,
I have a class which is passed an object. However is it possible for me to use the object type as well as the individual object sate within the class?
i.e. I have the class below, which almost works but is returning the Object type as well as the object identifier. Can I change this?

 import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.swing.tree.*;
public class Overview extends JPanel
{
    private JTree tree;
    private static String itemDescription;
    private String itemName;
    private Item itemOverview;
    
    public Overview( Item item2 )  
    {   
        BorderLayout layout = new BorderLayout();
        setLayout(layout);
        itemOverview = item2;

    //Create a JTree and populate with objects
    DefaultMutableTreeNode root = new DefaultMutableTreeNode( itemOverview );
    tree = new JTree(root);
            String name = itemOverview.getName(); 
            DefaultMutableTreeNode node = new DefaultMutableTreeNode( name );
            node.setUserObject( name );
            root.add(node);

tree.addTreeSelectionListener(new TreeSelectionListener()
{
    public void valueChanged(TreeSelectionEvent event)
    {
            //the user selects a tree node
    //update description
    TreePath path = tree.getSelectionPath();
            if(path == null) return;
            DefaultMutableTreeNode selectedNode = (DefaultMutableTreeNode) path.getLastPathComponent();
            String c = (String)selectedNode.getUserObject();
            //fieldDescription(connection, c);
    }
});

add(BorderLayout.WEST, new JScrollPane(tree));

//Create text area and insert into panel
        JTextArea itemDescript = new JTextArea(20, 4);    
JScrollPane descrip = new JScrollPane(itemDescript);    
        itemDescript.setLineWrap(true);    
        itemDescript.setWrapStyleWord(true); 
add(BorderLayout.CENTER, descrip);
        itemDescript.append("\n\n\t Select a " + itemOverview + " from the tree in the left-hand window to view"); 
    }
    
    public static String getItem()
{
return itemDescription;
}
}
 

Thanks

[Eddie Vanda]

 tree.addTreeSelectionListener(new TreeSelectionListener()
{
    public void valueChanged(TreeSelectionEvent event)
    {
            //the user selects a tree node
    //update description
    TreePath path = tree.getSelectionPath();
            if(path == null) return;
            DefaultMutableTreeNode selectedNode = (DefaultMutableTreeNode) path.getLastPathComponent();
            String c = (String)selectedNode.getUserObject();
            //fieldDescription(connection, c);
    }
});

Hi Amy,
I am trying to work out your question. Perhaps you could clarify which which objects are returned? Only methods return objects.
I do not know much about trees but I do see an inner class that is accessing class variable "tree" which is not final. I normally find it necessary to call an outer method from the inner class which carries out the handler's work.
Hope that helps.

[Amy Phillips]

Eddie,
I mean like I get back (from a method) the object Requirement@45958 so the object knows its type but is it possible to just get back Requirement? I could do this with a stringTokenizer but is there another way?
Thanks
Amy