Getting the index of the button pressed in an array of buttons

Question

Hi,
I have an array of buttons.
JButton buttons[];
buttons = new JButton[18];
for(int idx = 0; idx<buttons.length; idx++)
buttons[idx] = new JButton("changing button name");
buttons[idx].addActionListener(this);
locationButtonGrid.add(buttons[idx]);
locationButtonGrid.validate();
I need to know the index of the button pressed. I can't work from the string that is to be sent to the actionListener as this is going to be coming from a database and changing all the time. The idea behind it is that I am narrowing a list of entries down in a database by dividing it into 18 different sections, then dividing that section into 18 different sections and so on.
I need to know which of the 18 buttons was pressed. Is this possible?
Please let it be so!
Cheers,
elmicko

Answer 1

Try this (my code is in bold):
JButton buttons[];
buttons = new JButton[18];
for(int idx = 0; idx<buttons.length; idx++)
buttons[idx] = new JButton("changing button name");
buttons[idx].addActionListener(this);
buttons[idx].setID( String.valueOf( idx ) );
locationButtonGrid.add(buttons[idx]);
locationButtonGrid.validate();
In the listener (assuming event is evt):
buttons[ Integer.parseInt(evt.getSource().getID()) ]
or
int idx = Integer.parseInt(evt.getSource().getID());
buttons[idx]
finally, if you want to modify the button when you get the event, you can just call the JButton methods by casting the source to a JButton and working from there.