Help on parameterized constructor please

Question

So i have a menuing system. I create each window in a new class, but the problem is to detect which button is pressed in one of the provider classes by the driver class. I want the driver class to detect i have pressed for instance "list" to run the list class. Here i thought parameterized constructors would work best to get the variables across, but for some reason it is not working. Here is the code: (The gui works and detects the button is pushed etc.)
Provider class:
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class MainMenu implements ActionListener
     public String choice = "";
     public MainMenu(String c)
          choice = c;
     JFrame jf = new JFrame("Main Menu");
     Toolkit tk = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit ();
    int x = (int) tk.getScreenSize ().getWidth ();
    int y = (int) tk.getScreenSize ().getHeight ();
    ImageIcon ev = new ImageIcon("event.png");
    ImageIcon lb = new ImageIcon("list.png");
    ImageIcon cv = new ImageIcon("vote.png");
    ImageIcon bb = new ImageIcon("bio.png");
    Font f1 = new Font ("Tahoma", Font.BOLD, 25);
    Font f2 = new Font ("Chiller", Font.BOLD, 100);
    JLabel lbl = new JLabel("MAIN MENU");
    JLabel space = new JLabel ("");
     JButton jb1 = new JButton("Events", ev);
     JButton jb2 = new JButton("Leader Board", lb);
     JButton jb3 = new JButton("Cast Vote", cv);
     JButton jb4 = new JButton("Band Biographies", bb);
     GridLayout grid = new GridLayout(10,10,1,1);
     JPanel jp0 = new JPanel();
     JPanel jp1 = new JPanel();
     JPanel jp2 = new JPanel();
     JPanel jp3 = new JPanel();
     JPanel jp4 = new JPanel();
     public MainMenu()
         lbl.setFont(f2);
         jf.setBounds(0,0, x,y);
          jf.setVisible(true);
          jf.setResizable(false);
          jf.setDefaultCloseOperation (JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          jb1.addActionListener(this);
          jb2.addActionListener(this);
          jb3.addActionListener(this);
          jb4.addActionListener(this);
          jb1.setFont(f1);
          jb2.setFont(f1);
          jb3.setFont(f1);
          jb4.setFont(f1);
          jp0.add(lbl);
         jp1.add(jb1);
         jp2.add(jb2);
         jp3.add(jb3);
         jp4.add(jb4);
         jf.setLayout(grid);
         jf.add(space);
         jf.add(space);
         jf.add(jp0);
         jf.add(space);
         jf.add(jp1);
         jf.add(jp2);
         jf.add(jp3);
         jf.add(jp4);
         jf.repaint();
    public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e)
         if (e.getSource () == jb1)
              choice = "events";
              System.out.println(choice);//Just to test whether the buttons work...
         else if (e.getSource () == jb2)
              choice = "list";
              System.out.println(choice);
         else if (e.getSource () == jb3)
              choice = "vote";
              System.out.println(choice);
         else if (e.getSource () == jb4)
              choice = "bio";
              System.out.println(choice);
    public String getChoice()
         return choice;
}and here is the driver class which doesnt read the change in the choice variable:
public class PAT
    public static void main(String[] args) //implements ActionListener
          String choice = "";
          MainMenu mm = new MainMenu(choice);
          new MainMenu();
          while (choice.equals(""))
          if (choice.equals("list"))
               System.out.println("Parameterized constructor works");
}Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here is exactly what im trying to do. Im making a menu system. It consists of several windows. For instance main menu has 3 buttons. each button takes you to a new window. Each new window has a back button to return to the main menu. and then the new windows might also have buttons to go to another new window and will have buttons too.
Im making each window (menu window) in a new class. I want to be able to call these classes (windows) as desired. so all the loops and so on to run the different windows at the right times should be in the main class. makes it easier, as ill be jumping around between programs much less. i just want my parameterized constructors to work, because i believe this will be the easiest way. to have variables, that if changed in one of the provider classes, they will change in the driver class too. this way all i do is change a variable when a button i clicked in the provider classes. then the driver class does a certain action according to the value of the variable read from the provider classes. for instance my choice variable (which is now an int) detects what button is clicked. then my driver class runs the next window based on the value of choice which it recieved from the other classes.
I hope it makes sense.
Thank you for the quick replies.