Storing an array of checkbox booleans into preferences and retrieving them

Question

Just wondering how to go about storing an array of JCheckBoxes into a preference and retrieving it. There's 32 checkboxes so if they select, say, 6 of these randomly it should store it in a preference file and retrieve it when the application is loaded so that the same 6 checkboxes remain selected. I'm currently getting a stack overflow error, though.
import java.util.prefs.*;
public class Prefs {
     Preferences p;
     GUI g = new GUI();
     public Prefs() {
          p = Preferences.userNodeForPackage(getClass());
          g = new GUI();
     public void storePrefs() {
          for (int i = 0; i < g.symptoms.length; i++) {
               p.putBoolean("symptoms", g.symptoms.isSelected());
     public void retrievePrefs() {
          for (int t = 0; t < g.symptoms.length; t++) {
               p.getBoolean("symptoms", g.symptoms[t].isSelected());
symptoms is the array of checkboxes in the GUI class. Not sure where I am going wrong here. I can do it with strings from textfields etc but this is proving to be an annoyance. :(
Thanks in advance                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Answer 1

Actually, I have a better example, see below
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.prefs.*;
public class PreferencesTest {
    private Preferences prefs;
    public static final String PREF_OPTION = "SELECTED_MENU_ITEM";
    public void createGui() {
        prefs = Preferences.userNodeForPackage(this.getClass());
        JMenuItem exitAndCloseMenuItem = new JMenuItem("Exit");
        exitAndCloseMenuItem.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                System.exit(0);
        JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
        fileMenu.add(exitAndCloseMenuItem);
        JCheckBoxMenuItem[] preferenceItems = {
            new JCheckBoxMenuItem("pref 1"),
            new JCheckBoxMenuItem("pref 2"),
            new JCheckBoxMenuItem("pref 3"),
            new JCheckBoxMenuItem("pref 4")};
        int selectedMenuItem = prefs.getInt(PREF_OPTION, 0);
        preferenceItems[selectedMenuItem].setSelected(true);
        ButtonGroup preferencesGroup = new ButtonGroup();
        JMenu preferenceMenu = new JMenu("Preferences");
        for(int i = 0;i<preferenceItems.length;i++){
            preferenceItems.setActionCommand(Integer.toString(i));
preferenceItems[i].addActionListener(new menuItemActionListener());
preferencesGroup.add(preferenceItems[i]);
preferenceMenu.add(preferenceItems[i]);
JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
menuBar.add(fileMenu);
menuBar.add(preferenceMenu);
JFrame f = new JFrame("Prefernce Test");
f.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
f.pack();
f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
f.setVisible(true);
public static void main(String[] args){
new PreferencesTest().createGui();
class menuItemActionListener implements ActionListener{
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
JCheckBoxMenuItem jcbm = (JCheckBoxMenuItem)e.getSource();
prefs.put(PREF_OPTION, jcbm.getActionCommand());