Getting the class instance given a component:

Question

Suppose I have a JPanel named pnlOne which contains
one label: lblOne = "LABEL" and
one JTextField: tfOne = "1234".
Also, tfOne.setName("FIELD1").
Using
Components c = pnl.getComponents()
I can get a list of components on the panel.
If for example, c[2].getName() = "FIELD1" how do I get the value of FIELD1? IE, how do I get "1234"?
Thanks for the help,

Answer 1

If you know the Component you are dealing with is actually a specific subclass of Component (like JTextField) you can cast it to the specific subclass and call JTextField's getText() method, like so:if(c[2].getName().equals("FIELD1")) {
  // now we are pretty sure this is the JTextField we created earlier
  if(c[2] instanceof JTextField) {
    // now we know for sure this is a JTextField
    // if you don't know for sure it's a JTextField, the next line might throw a ClassCastException
    JTextField c2AsField = (JTextField)c[2];
    System.out.println(c2AsField.getText());
}