How to create unique object for dynamically created jTextFields

Question

Hello to all forum members
According to my requirement , i have created a number of jpanels(containing textfield,comboboxes etc) and added them to a jScrollPane.
But my requirement is after adding the jPanels to the JScrollPanel, i want to add some logic to that jpanels; like
1) i want to sort the panels according to some condition when a sort button is clicked
2)and the text field which are in the panel should be sorted according to the integer value inside the text field.
3) and after a buton clicked the value what are in the jText field should store in the data base etc.....
For the above logic to apply i need the instance variable(i.e object reference ) should be difference, so that when i want to get a value from any component ( text from jtextfield ) i can get the value through its instance variable name.for example
JTextField textField1=new JTextField("aaa");
JTextField textField2=new JTextField("cccc");
JTextField textField3=new JTextField("eee");then
textField1.getText();
textField2.getText();
textField3.getText();But the problem is when i am creating the number of panels the name of the instance variables (of all the components i.e textfield ,panels)are same so i can't add the logic to any particular component.
I have tried to solve this problem , but not getting any idea .Please help me to find out the solution. I hope i explained my problem clearly if not
tell me i will explain it again.
I have given here with the code in which i have created 100 jpanels , each jpanels consisting of 1label and 1text field but the instance variable for each component is same.
Plese help me to solve this problem,Thanks in advance.
import javax.swing.*;
public class NestedPanels extends JFrame
  private static final int NO_OF_NESTED_PANELS = 100;
  public NestedPanels()
    super("Nested Panels");
    setSize(200, 200);
    JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
    mainPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(mainPanel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
     for ( int i=1; i<=NO_OF_NESTED_PANELS; i++)
         mainPanel.add(createChildPanel(i));
     javax.swing.JScrollPane jScrollPane = new javax.swing.JScrollPane();
     jScrollPane.setViewportView(mainPanel);
    getContentPane().add(jScrollPane);
    setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    setVisible(true);
  private JPanel createChildPanel(int intChildPanelNumber)
    JPanel childPanel = new JPanel();
    childPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(childPanel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
    childPanel.add(new JLabel("" + intChildPanelNumber));
    childPanel.add(new JTextField());
    return childPanel;
  public static void main(String[] argv)
    javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
      public void run()
        NestedPanels example = new NestedPanels();
}Thanks & Regards
Mahendra

Answer 1

Hi to all forum members,
Thanks for all your help.
JayDS, as you have told i have tried with
return Integer.valueOf( getText() ).compareTo( Integer.valueOf( mp.getText() ) );but it is giving
java.lang .NumberFormatException.forInputString(unknown source)
sorry i could not get what is SSCE?
I am sending the code here with my requirement.
My requirement is to sort the panels.
i.e.
when I will click on to the sortC1 button , the whole panels should be sorted according to the integer value inside the textfield1 (but here in my code it is sorting string wise,if u enter 1,2 ,1111111,3 ,222 the output should be 1,2,3, ,222 ,1111111 but it is actually giving the output as 1, 1111111,2,222,3 which is wrong )
Arrays.sort(NestedPanelSorting); => this method is used for sorting
return getText().compareTo(mp.getText());=> method is used for the text comparision in the example ( NestedPanelSorting.java)
sortC2 also same.
When I will click sortC3 ,the panel will be sorted according to the string values in the dropdown of combo boxes. Here how to access the instance of combobox to sort or the panel or through array of objects how can i sort?
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.Arrays;
import javax.swing.*;
public class NestedPanelSorting extends JFrame
    private static final int NO_OF_NESTED_PANELS = 10;
    private MyPanel[] NestedPanelSorting = new MyPanel[NO_OF_NESTED_PANELS];
    //MyPanel[] is a array of MyPanel objects declared below
     private JPanel mainPanel;
    private JScrollPane jScrollPane;
     public NestedPanelSorting()
        super("Nested Panels Sorting");
        setSize(400, 200);
        mainPanel = new JPanel();
        mainPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(mainPanel,BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
        //in the for loop below MyPanel(i) is called through NestedPanelSorting[i]
          for (int i = 0; i < NestedPanelSorting.length; i++)
            NestedPanelSorting[i] = new MyPanel(i);
            mainPanel.add(NestedPanelSorting);
jScrollPane = new javax.swing.JScrollPane();
jScrollPane.setViewportView(mainPanel);
getContentPane().add(jScrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
JButton myBtn1 = new JButton("sortC1");
          JButton myBtn2 = new JButton("sortC2");
          JButton myBtn3 = new JButton("sortC3");
getContentPane().add(myBtn1, BorderLayout.EAST);
getContentPane().add(myBtn2, BorderLayout.WEST);
getContentPane().add(myBtn3, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
          myBtn1.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0)
myButtonAction(arg0);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setVisible(true);
private void myButtonAction(ActionEvent arg0)
          //this Array.sort() method is for sorting the array -
          // accordig to string value but i need to sort integer value wise
Arrays.sort(NestedPanelSorting);
          mainPanel = new JPanel();
mainPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(mainPanel,
BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
for (int i = 0; i < NestedPanelSorting.length; i++)
mainPanel.add(NestedPanelSorting[i]);
jScrollPane.setViewportView(mainPanel);
     public static void main(String[] argv)
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
public void run()
new NestedPanelSorting();
//declaring of MyPanel class where textfield1,txtField2,comboBox1 are added
     class MyPanel extends JPanel implements Comparable<MyPanel>
private int number;
private JTextField txtField1;
          private JTextField txtField2;
private JComboBox comboBox1;
public MyPanel(int number)
               super();
this.number = number;
setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
add(new JLabel(String.valueOf(number)));
txtField1 = new JTextField();
add(txtField1);
               txtField2 = new JTextField();
add(txtField2);
               comboBox1=new JComboBox();
               comboBox1.setModel(new javax.swing.DefaultComboBoxModel(new String[] { "ITEM  1 ", "ITEM  2 ", "ITEM  3 ", "ITEM  4 ","ITEM  5 " }));
               add(comboBox1);
public int getNumber()
return number;
          public String getText()
               if (txtField1.getText() == null)
return "";
               return txtField1.getText();
     public int compareTo(MyPanel mp)
          return getText().compareTo(mp.getText());
          //return Integer.valueOf( getText() ).compareTo( Integer.valueOf( mp.getText() ) );