java.awt
class TextField

java.lang.Object java.awt.Component java.awt.TextComponent java.awt.TextField

All Implemented Interfaces:

MenuContainer, ImageObserver, Serializable, Accessible

Most common way to construct:

TextField tfield1 = new TextField(10);

Based on 123 examples

public class TextField
extends TextComponent

A TextField object is a text component that allows for the editing of a single line of text.

For example, the following image depicts a frame with four text fields of varying widths. Two of these text fields display the predefined text "Hello".

Here is the code that produces these four text fields:

 TextField tf1, tf2, tf3, tf4;
 // a blank text field
 tf1 = new TextField();
 // blank field of 20 columns
 tf2 = new TextField("", 20);
 // predefined text displayed
 tf3 = new TextField("Hello!");
 // predefined text in 30 columns
 tf4 = new TextField("Hello", 30);
 

Every time the user types a key in the text field, one or more key events are sent to the text field. A KeyEvent may be one of three types: keyPressed, keyReleased, or keyTyped. The properties of a key event indicate which of these types it is, as well as additional information about the event, such as what modifiers are applied to the key event and the time at which the event occurred.

The key event is passed to every KeyListener or KeyAdapter object which registered to receive such events using the component's addKeyListener method. (KeyAdapter objects implement the KeyListener interface.)

It is also possible to fire an ActionEvent. If action events are enabled for the text field, they may be fired by pressing the Return key.

The TextField class's processEvent method examines the action event and passes it along to processActionEvent. The latter method redirects the event to any ActionListener objects that have registered to receive action events generated by this text field.

TextField

public TextField()
          throws HeadlessException

Constructs a new text field.

Throws:

HeadlessException - if GraphicsEnvironment.isHeadless() returns true.

TextField

public TextField(int columns)
          throws HeadlessException

Constructs a new empty text field with the specified number of columns. A column is an approximate average character width that is platform-dependent.

Parameters:

columns - the number of columns. If columns is less than 0, columns is set to 0.

Throws:

HeadlessException - if GraphicsEnvironment.isHeadless() returns true.

TextField

public TextField(String text)
          throws HeadlessException

Constructs a new text field initialized with the specified text.

Parameters:

text - the text to be displayed. If text is null, the empty string "" will be displayed.

Throws:

HeadlessException - if GraphicsEnvironment.isHeadless() returns true.

TextField

public TextField(String text,
                 int columns)
          throws HeadlessException

Constructs a new text field initialized with the specified text to be displayed, and wide enough to hold the specified number of columns. A column is an approximate average character width that is platform-dependent.

Parameters:

text - the text to be displayed. If text is null, the empty string "" will be displayed.

columns - the number of columns. If columns is less than 0, columns is set to 0.

Throws:

HeadlessException - if GraphicsEnvironment.isHeadless() returns true.

addActionListener

public synchronized void addActionListener(ActionListener l)

Adds the specified action listener to receive action events from this text field. If l is null, no exception is thrown and no action is performed.

Refer to AWT Threading Issues for details on AWT's threading model.

Parameters:

l - the action listener.

addNotify

public void addNotify()

Creates the TextField's peer. The peer allows us to modify the appearance of the TextField without changing its functionality.

Overrides:

addNotify in class TextComponent

echoCharIsSet

public boolean echoCharIsSet()

Indicates whether or not this text field has a character set for echoing.

An echo character is useful for text fields where user input should not be echoed to the screen, as in the case of a text field for entering a password.

Returns:

true if this text field has a character set for echoing; false otherwise.

getAccessibleContext

public AccessibleContext getAccessibleContext()

Gets the AccessibleContext associated with this TextField. For text fields, the AccessibleContext takes the form of an AccessibleAWTTextField. A new AccessibleAWTTextField instance is created if necessary.

Overrides:

getAccessibleContext in class TextComponent

Returns:

an AccessibleAWTTextField that serves as the AccessibleContext of this TextField

getActionListeners

public synchronized ActionListener[] getActionListeners()

Returns an array of all the action listeners registered on this textfield.

Returns:

all of this textfield's ActionListeners or an empty array if no action listeners are currently registered

getColumns

public int getColumns()

Gets the number of columns in this text field. A column is an approximate average character width that is platform-dependent.

Returns:

the number of columns.

getEchoChar

public char getEchoChar()

Gets the character that is to be used for echoing.

An echo character is useful for text fields where user input should not be echoed to the screen, as in the case of a text field for entering a password. If echoChar = 0, user input is echoed to the screen unchanged.

A Java platform implementation may support only a limited, non-empty set of echo characters. This function returns the echo character originally requested via setEchoChar(). The echo character actually used by the TextField implementation might be different.

Returns:

the echo character for this text field.

getListeners

public EventListener[] getListeners(Class listenerType)

Returns an array of all the objects currently registered as FooListeners upon this TextField. FooListeners are registered using the addFooListener method.

You can specify the listenerType argument with a class literal, such as FooListener.class. For example, you can query a TextField t for its action listeners with the following code:

ActionListener[] als = (ActionListener[])(t.getListeners(ActionListener.class));

If no such listeners exist, this method returns an empty array.

Overrides:

getListeners in class TextComponent

Parameters:

listenerType - the type of listeners requested; this parameter should specify an interface that descends from java.util.EventListener

Returns:

an array of all objects registered as FooListeners on this textfield, or an empty array if no such listeners have been added

getMinimumSize

public Dimension getMinimumSize()

Gets the minumum dimensions for this text field.

Overrides:

getMinimumSize in class Component

Returns:

the minimum dimensions for displaying this text field.

getMinimumSize

public Dimension getMinimumSize(int columns)

Gets the minumum dimensions for a text field with the specified number of columns.

Parameters:

columns - the number of columns in this text field.

getPreferredSize

public Dimension getPreferredSize()

Gets the preferred size of this text field.

Overrides:

getPreferredSize in class Component

Returns:

the preferred dimensions for displaying this text field.

getPreferredSize

public Dimension getPreferredSize(int columns)

Gets the preferred size of this text field with the specified number of columns.

Parameters:

columns - the number of columns in this text field.

Returns:

the preferred dimensions for displaying this text field.

minimumSize

public Dimension minimumSize()

Overrides:

minimumSize in class Component

minimumSize

public Dimension minimumSize(int columns)

Parameters:

columns

paramString

protected String paramString()

Returns a string representing the state of this TextField. This method is intended to be used only for debugging purposes, and the content and format of the returned string may vary between implementations. The returned string may be empty but may not be null.

Overrides:

paramString in class TextComponent

Returns:

the parameter string of this text field

preferredSize

public Dimension preferredSize()

Overrides:

preferredSize in class Component

preferredSize

public Dimension preferredSize(int columns)

Parameters:

columns

processActionEvent

protected void processActionEvent(ActionEvent e)

Processes action events occurring on this text field by dispatching them to any registered ActionListener objects.

This method is not called unless action events are enabled for this component. Action events are enabled when one of the following occurs:

• An ActionListener object is registered via addActionListener.
• Action events are enabled via enableEvents.

Note that if the event parameter is null the behavior is unspecified and may result in an exception.

Parameters:

e - the action event

processEvent

protected void processEvent(AWTEvent e)

Processes events on this text field. If the event is an instance of ActionEvent, it invokes the processActionEvent method. Otherwise, it invokes processEvent on the superclass.

Note that if the event parameter is null the behavior is unspecified and may result in an exception.

Overrides:

processEvent in class TextComponent

Parameters:

e - the event

removeActionListener

public synchronized void removeActionListener(ActionListener l)

Removes the specified action listener so that it no longer receives action events from this text field. If l is null, no exception is thrown and no action is performed.

Refer to AWT Threading Issues for details on AWT's threading model.

Parameters:

l - the action listener.

setColumns

public synchronized void setColumns(int columns)

Sets the number of columns in this text field. A column is an approximate average character width that is platform-dependent.

Parameters:

columns - the number of columns.

setEchoChar

public void setEchoChar(char c)

Sets the echo character for this text field.

An echo character is useful for text fields where user input should not be echoed to the screen, as in the case of a text field for entering a password. Setting echoChar = 0 allows user input to be echoed to the screen again.

A Java platform implementation may support only a limited, non-empty set of echo characters. Attempts to set an unsupported echo character will cause the default echo character to be used instead. Subsequent calls to getEchoChar() will return the echo character originally requested. This might or might not be identical to the echo character actually used by the TextField implementation.

Parameters:

c - the echo character for this text field.

setEchoCharacter

public synchronized void setEchoCharacter(char c)

Parameters:

c

setText

public void setText(String t)

Sets the text that is presented by this text component to be the specified text.

Overrides:

setText in class TextComponent

Parameters:

t - the new text.