Retreiving actionlistner for jcombobox

Question

I am wanting to remove the actionlistener that is set to a jcombobox and i tried this line
cboPatients.removeActionListener(cboPatients.getActionListeners());but gives me the error
removeActionListener(java.awt.event.ActionListener) in javax.swing.JComboBox cannot be applied to (java.awt.event.ActionListener[])
here is how my jcombobox is setup
private void cboPatientsActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {  I am needing to remove the action listener so that i can do a removeallitems() and then re-enstate the actionlistener.
let me know if more information is needed

Answer 1

Demo:
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Gui {
    private JComboBox combo = new JComboBox(new String[]{"apple","berry","cherry"});
    private ActionListener al = new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
            System.out.println(combo.getSelectedItem());
    private ItemListener il = new ItemListener() {
        public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent evt) {
            if (evt.getStateChange() == ItemEvent.SELECTED)
                combo.addActionListener(al);
            else
                combo.removeActionListener(al);
    public Gui() {
        JCheckBox listening = new JCheckBox("Listening");
        listening.addItemListener(il);
        JPanel contentPane = new JPanel();
        contentPane.add(combo);
        contentPane.add(listening);
        JFrame f = new JFrame();
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.setContentPane(contentPane);
        f.pack();
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
            public void run() {
                JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
                new Gui();
}