Calling arraylist from another class - help please!!

Question

Hey, I need some help calling my arraylist from my GUI class, as the arraylist is in the 'AlbumList' class and not in the 'GUI' class i get the error 'cannot find symbol', which is pretty obvious but i cannot figure how to get around this problem. help would be greatly appreciated.
i have written ***PROBLEM*** next to the bad line of code!
Thanks!!
public class Album
    String artist;
    String title;
    String genre;
    public Album(String a, String t, String g)
        artist = a;
     title = t;
        genre = g;
     public String getArtist()
        return artist;
    public String getTitle()
        return title;
     public String getGenre()
        return genre;
public class AlbumList
    public ArrayList <Album> theAlbums;
    int pointer = -1;
    public AlbumList()
        theAlbums = new ArrayList <Album>();
    public void addAlbum(Album newAlbum)
     theAlbums.add(newAlbum);
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class GUI extends JFrame
    public int max = 5;
    public int numAlbums = 4;
    public int pointer = -1;
    public GUI ()
        super("Recording System");
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        JPanel main = new JPanel();
        JPanel panel1 = new JPanel();
        panel1.setLayout(new GridLayout(3,2,0,0));
        JPanel panel2 = new JPanel();
        panel2.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,2,20,0));
        final JLabel artistLBL = new JLabel("Artist: ");
        final JLabel titleLBL = new JLabel("Title: ");
        final JLabel genreLBL = new JLabel("Genre: ");
        final JTextField artistFLD = new JTextField(20);
        final JTextField titleFLD = new JTextField(20);
        final JTextField genreFLD = new JTextField(20);
        final JButton nextBTN = new JButton("Next");
        nextBTN.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
                pointer++;
                artistFLD.setText(theAlbums.get(pointer).getArtist());       ***PROBLEM***
                titleFLD.setText("NEXT");
                genreFLD.setText("NEXT");
        final JButton prevBTN = new JButton("Prev");
        prevBTN.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
                pointer--;
                artistFLD.setText("PREVIOUS");
                titleFLD.setText("PREVIOUS");
                genreFLD.setText("PREVIOUS");
     panel1.add(artistLBL);
        panel1.add(artistFLD);
        panel1.add(titleLBL);
        panel1.add(titleFLD);
        panel1.add(genreLBL);
        panel1.add(genreFLD);
        panel2.add(prevBTN);
        panel2.add(nextBTN);
        main.add(panel1);
        main.add(panel2);
        setVisible(true);
        this.getContentPane().add(main);
        setSize(500, 500);
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Thanks!!
Edited by: phreeck on Nov 3, 2007 8:55 PM

Answer 1

thanks, it dosnt give me a complication error but when i press the button it says out of bounds error, and i think my arraylist may be empty possibly even though i put this data in.. this is my test file which runs it all.
any ideas? thanks!!
public class Test
    public static void main(String []args)
        AlbumList a = new AlbumList();
        String aArtist = "IronMaiden";
        String aTitle = "7thSon";
        String aGenre = "HeavyMetal";
        Album newA = new Album(aArtist, aTitle, aGenre);
        a.addAlbum(newA);
        aArtist = "LambOfGod";
        aTitle = "Sacrament";
        aGenre = "Metal";
        Album newB = new Album(aArtist, aTitle, aGenre);
        a.addAlbum(newB);
        aArtist = "JohnMayer";
        aTitle = "Continuum";
        aGenre = "Guitar";
        Album newC = new Album(aArtist, aTitle, aGenre);
        a.addAlbum(newC);
        aArtist = "StillRemains";
        aTitle = "TheSerpent";
        aGenre = "Metal";
        Album newD = new Album(aArtist, aTitle, aGenre);
        a.addAlbum(newD);
     GUI tester = new GUI();
}