Dynamic reference to buttons

Question

Hi all,
I'd like to make dynamic references to togglebuttons (I'm using netbeans). In pseudo code, I would like to be able to do something like:
For(int i = 1, i<10, i++){
buttonName = toggleButton;
buttonName.concat(numToString(i));
convert buttonName to handler 'handle'
handle.setSelected(true);
With classes, it seems to me that I could use Class.forName, but I have no idea how to make this work for an interface element, and I can't find it on the web.
Any help is welcome, thanks!
Edited by: jefke33 on Jun 20, 2009 1:12 PM
Edited by: jefke33 on Jun 20, 2009 1:13 PM

Answer 1

You can't invoke methods on bits of String as if they were references to objects. (Java isn't like PHP in this regard.)
You can, however, use arrays as db suggested.
Let's say I have a hundred toggle buttons. I might give them names like "okButton" "exitButton" etc. Or I might make them elements of an array of buttons, buttonArr.
And I have a method toggle(int) that accepts an integer as input and verifies that the argument is within the range 1 to 100, throwing an exception if it is not. This method is intended to select the toggle button that corresponds to the integer it receives as input as selected. So the method would be implemented as
buttonArr.setSelected(true);