Proper way to pass 'this' to an anonymous listener

Question

I have added a button to copy some information to the clipboard. Instead of a class-level actionPerformed() method I am using an anonymous listener:
     JButton jb = new JButton("Copy QE");
     jb.setBackground(bgc);
     jb.setForeground(Color.lightGray);
     jb.setToolTipText("copy the information below to the clipboard");
     final HelpBox that = this;
     jb.addActionListener( new ActionListener() {
         public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
          StringSelection ss = new StringSelection(that.toString());
          Clipboard cb = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
          cb.setContents(ss, SIHwheel.logBox);
     });It seems to be working fine. I am wondering, though, is the final declaration of that the proper way? Is there a better overall methodology?

Answer 1

A common approach is to encapsulate the logic into a method on the enclosing class. Then, the listener would just call the method:
private void someMethod() {
  // init the JButton...
  jb.addActionListener( new ActionListener() {
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
      updateClipboard();
private void updateClipboard()
  StringSelection ss = new StringSelection(this.toString());
  Clipboard cb = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
  cb.setContents(ss, SIHwheel.logBox);
}