JComboBox event confusion: not enough generated? :-(

Question

Hi,
I am slightly confused about the events generated by the combobox.
I have a combobox and and actionlistener registered on it. If I programmatically use setSelectedIndex on the combobox, and event is generated and the actionlistener is triggered. If I do a setSelectedIndex on the same combobox within the code of the action listener, no event is generated, though the index does get updated. Though I am happy it doesn't generate that event, I don't understand why it doesn't. Anyone?
Rene'

Answer 1

Instead of using ActionListener you should use ItemListener for combo box. This is an example
comboBox.addItemListener(new java.awt.event.ItemListener() {
     public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e) {
     try {
     JComboBox box = (JComboBox) e.getSource();
     System.out.println(box.getSelectedItem());
     } catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException exp) {}
});Note: Item Listener only listens when you change something in Combo Box. If you click on a combo box, and selects the same value, item listeners doesn't call.
Hope this helps.