Problem with doClick(int i) inside a while loop.

Question

I'm doing a boring "watch and repeat" game. I have 9 JButtons. I want the computer to randomly click on those buttons and the player have to repeat the numbers in the correct order.
My problem is when the computer is showing which buttons to press. My code looks like this (sorry about the formatting):
ActionListener aL = new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
if(e.getSource()==start){
while (something something){
switch(here is a random number between 1 and 9){
case 1: j1.doClick(900); //j1 is a JButton
My problem is that the doClick doesn't release the button during the whole loop. If it loops 5 times, then all the pressed buttons will remain pressed down for as long as the loop is running. I've tried to call repaint, but it doesn't work. All buttons remains pressed even though they should go back to normal after 0,9 seconds.
I don't think the ActionListener should cause any problem. And neither does the switch. It seems like the application simple won't repaint itself until the loop is finished.

Answer 1

Ok here is the code to make work what you want. Note that it looks ugly :)
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class Test extends JFrame implements Runnable {
  private JButton btn1, btn2, btn3;
  public Test() {
    super("Test");
    btn1 = new JButton("1");
    btn2 = new JButton("2");
    btn3 = new JButton("3");
    JPanel p = new JPanel(new FlowLayout());
    p.add(btn1);
    p.add(btn2);
    p.add(btn3);
    getContentPane().add(p, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    pack();
    setVisible(true);
    Thread t = new Thread(this);
    t.start();
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    new Test();
  public void run() {
    //This run method is NOT in the event thread
    while (true) {
      try { Thread.sleep(1000); } catch (InterruptedException e) {}
      SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Worker(btn1));
      try { Thread.sleep(1000); } catch (InterruptedException e) {}
      SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Worker(btn2));
      try { Thread.sleep(1000); } catch (InterruptedException e) {}
      SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Worker(btn3));
  class Worker implements Runnable {
    JButton button = null;
    public Worker(JButton b) {
      button = b;
    public void run() {
      button.doClick(100);
}