JLabel not updating text in GUI

Question

i've spent about an hour trying to get my label to update from another class. i set the label to public and i tried to invoke setText() on it from the other class, but it doesnt change it in the GUI. i printed the getText() method of the label and it's identical to what i tried to set it to be, but it just isnt displaying the correct text.
i know to update in the GUI it needs to repaint itself, but this is automatic for setText() and it is working for the local calls to setText().
i have a method
     public void setStatus(String text)
          status.setText(text);
     }that should do exactly what i want, but it only works when called from its own class..... HELP

Answer 1

hey,
just a little example...
//first little class with the label in it! and a getter for the label.
public class LabelPanel extends JFrame {
     private static  JLabel label;
     public LabelPanel(){
          initGUI();
     private void initGUI() {
          label = new JLabel("old text");
          JPanel panel = new JPanel();
          ButtonPanel buttonPanel = new ButtonPanel();
          panel.add(buttonPanel.getPane());
          panel.add(label);
          setContentPane(panel);
     public static void main(String[] args)
          // Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
          // creating and showing this application's GUI.
          javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
               public void run() {
                    createAndShowGUI();
      * Create the GUI and show it.
     private static void createAndShowGUI() {
          // Create and set up the window.
          JFrame frame = new LabelPanel();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          frame.setTitle("test");
          // Display the window.
          frame.pack();
          frame.setVisible(true);
        // gets the label
     public static JLabel getLabel() {
          return label;
//second class just a button that changes the label
public class ButtonPanel implements ActionListener{
     private JPanel pane;
     private JButton button;
     public ButtonPanel(){
          init();
     private void init(){
          button = new JButton("change");
          button.addActionListener(this);
          pane = new JPanel();
          pane.add(button);
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
          String cmd = e.getActionCommand();
          if(cmd.equals("change")){
               button.setText("done");
                        //get the label and set the new text
               LabelPanel.getLabel().setText("new text");
          }else if(cmd.equals("done")){
               button.setText("change");
                        //get the label and set the new text
               LabelPanel.getLabel().setText("old Text");
     public JPanel getPane() {
          return pane;
}hope that helps!!! :)