GetText method

Question

I'm brand new to Java programming and I need a little help please. I'm trying to make a simple GUI that will retrieve the text entered into a text field and display it in the DOS box using System.out.println....When I click the Accept button to display it in the DOS box I get a ton of jibberish. What am I doing wrong? Here is my code....
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Gui extends JFrame implements ActionListener
     // Button & TextField reference variables need class scope
     JButton acceptButton, clearButton, closeButton;
     JTextField nameTextField;
     JTextField addressTextField;
     JTextField phoneTextField;
     public static void main(String args[])
          // create instance of SwingFrameAndComponents
          Gui frameAndCompnents = new Gui();      
     // constructor
     public Gui()
          // create Button, Label and TextField instances
          acceptButton = new JButton("Accept");
          clearButton = new JButton("Clear");          
          closeButton = new JButton("Close");
          JLabel nameLabel = new JLabel("Name:");
          JLabel addressLabel = new JLabel("Address:");
          JLabel phoneLabel = new JLabel("Phone:");
          nameTextField = new JTextField(15);
          addressTextField = new JTextField(15);
          phoneTextField = new JTextField(10);
          // create two Panels - default FlowLayout manager
          JPanel upperPanel = new JPanel();
          JPanel lowerPanel = new JPanel();
          // add label & textfield to upper panel
          upperPanel.add(nameLabel);
          upperPanel.add(addressLabel);
          upperPanel.add(phoneLabel);
          upperPanel.add(nameTextField);
          upperPanel.add(addressTextField);
          upperPanel.add(phoneTextField);
          // add buttons to lower panel
          lowerPanel.add(acceptButton);
          lowerPanel.add(clearButton);
          lowerPanel.add(closeButton);
          // add panels to frame - frame default is BorderLayout
          Container c = this.getContentPane();
          c.add("North",upperPanel);
          c.add("South",lowerPanel);
          // register frame as listener for button events
          acceptButton.addActionListener(this);
          clearButton.addActionListener(this);          
          closeButton.addActionListener(this);     
          this.setSize(700,150);
          this.setTitle("GUI");
          this.setVisible(true);
          // create anonymous inner class to handle window closing event
          // register the inner class as a listener with the frame
          this.addWindowListener
          ( // begin inner class definition
               new WindowAdapter() // superclass of inner class is WindowAdapter
                    public void windowClosing(WindowEvent event)
                         {shutDown();} // invoke shutDown in outer class
               }// end of inner class definition     
          ); // end of argument sent to addWindowListener method     
     // actionPerformed is invoked when a Button is clicked
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
     {     // see which button was clicked
          if(e.getSource() == acceptButton)
               acceptMessage();
          if(e.getSource() == clearButton)
               clearMessage();
          if(e.getSource() == closeButton)
               shutDown();
     public void acceptMessage()
          { nameTextField.getText();
          System.out.println (nameTextField);     } // Here is where I need to println to the DOS box
public void clearMessage()
          { nameTextField.setText("           ");
          addressTextField.setText(" ");
          phoneTextField.setText(" "); }     
     public void shutDown()
               this.dispose();
               System.exit(0); // terminate
Thanks so much for whatever input you can give me.

Answer 1

try adding the actionlistener directly to each button respectivly
acceptButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)
System.out.println(nameTextField.getText());
do the same for the other buttons and replace system.out..... with the respective code u want to run
also i just saw
public void acceptMessage()
{ nameTextField.getText();
System.out.println (nameTextField); } // Here is where I need to println to the DOS boxthe ".getText()" funcion returns a string
so when u called nameTextField.getText() it returned a String to...nowhere!
either make a variable to catch the string like:
String tmp = nameTextField.getText();
OR
just directly put the statement into the system.out.println funciton like:
System.out.println(nameTextField.getText());
nate