2 classes, open JDialog

Question

I am new to Java... and have a problem: I have two classes in 2 different files (2 main methods). The first class, "Game", displays a JFrame with JPanel etc etc. Then I created a second class, "CTabel", that shows a complex table - I used the Netbeans 5 GUI Builder to do this. It's a JDialog (public class CTable extends javax.swing.JDialog)
I am feeling a bit sheepish about it but I don't know how to open this CTable from my first class "Game" :/
Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

But one of the fundamentals is missing: how do I call a class which is in another file? How can I call "public class CTable extends javax.swing.JDialog" from my first class?
Hmm... It's really hard to know exactly where your disjoint is so I'll punt.
You can instantiate an object of type CTable with:
CTable table = new CTable();  //using default constructor, there may be others....Then, since it extends JDialog you can display it with:
table.setVisible(true);If, when you say "I have two main functions" that you wrote two functions with this header:
public staic void main(String []args) {Then you're probably going to want to move some code around. Minimally, you won't be calling main() on CTable. To be more robust, you'd move almost all logic out of both main() methods and into the constructors and bodies of your two classes. You may even want to use a common practice of having a jbInit() method which can be called in GUI classes, so that different constructors can easily provide consistent behavior.
Currently you may have something like:
class CTable extends JDialog {
    //A few over-ridden methods exist here perhaps.
    public static void main(String []args) {
        //almost all code exists here....
class Game {
    //A few utility methods etc may exist here...
    public static void main(String []args) {
        //almost all code exists here....
}What you could try is:
class CTable extends JDialog {
    CTable() {
        super();
        jbInit();
    CTable(JComponent parent) {
        super(parent);
        jbInit();
    jbInit() {
        //All GUI initialization goes here.
    //Other useful functionality goes here, modularized into methods.
    //A few over-ridden methods exist here perhaps.
    public static void main(String []args) {
        //almost all code exists here....
class Game {
    Game() {
        initialize();
    initialize() {
        //most initialization logic goes here...
    public void startPlaying() {
        //game is set into motion (assuming it was initalized) here.
    //Useful/modular methods, and possibly even internal classes exist here.
    public static void main(String []args) {
        Game g = new Game();
        g.startPlaying();
}This may seem rather long and tedious, but it's a powerful framework, and moves the complexity of your code out of one or two knots into a common framework that other programmers will easily understand. (Also, how you organize your code is all about your own personal "coding style" so feel free to look around at other's projects and examples and use ideas you really like...)
One final thought here. I'm not going to recommend some book or tutorial at this point, because it's clear that you're very new to programming (and from the last thread/discussion we had) that you're picking things up pretty quickly. Instead, I recommend you get into a good basic "intro" to programming class as quickly as possible, perhaps at a local community college if you can't find anything else more available.
This would give you a solid foundation and teach you some good habits early so you don't have to break bad habits later on. (We could debate the relative merits of self-directed study and formal education all day, but my personal experience is that close contact with a seasoned educator is the most effective way to learn the fundamentals.)
Oh yeah... and if I'm way off base here, a code snippet or two would help us figure out what's going on.