Swing - Thread.sleep() stop JTextField.setText() working [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
using sleep() for a single thread

I'm having issues with JTextField.setText() when using Thread.sleep(). This is for a basic calculator I'm making. When the input in the input field is not of the correct format I want "INPUT ERROR" to appear in the output field for 5 seconds and then for it to be cleared. The setText() method did work when I just set the text once to "INPUT ERROR" and by printing out the text in between I found it does work with both that and the setText("") one after the other. The problem arises when I put the Thread.sleep() between them. Here's a SSCCE version of the code:

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import javax.swing.*;

public class Calc {
    static Calc calc = new Calc();

    public static void main(String args[]) {
        GUI gui = calc.new GUI();
    }

    public class GUI implements ActionListener {

        private JButton equals;

        private JTextField inputField, outputField;

        public GUI() {
            createFrame();
        }

        public void createFrame() {
            JFrame baseFrame = new JFrame("Calculator");
            baseFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
            JPanel contentPane = new JPanel();
            BoxLayout layout = new BoxLayout(contentPane, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
            contentPane.setLayout(layout);
            baseFrame.setContentPane(contentPane);
            baseFrame.setSize(320, 100);

            equals = new JButton("=");
            equals.addActionListener(this);

            inputField = new JTextField(16);
            inputField.setHorizontalAlignment(JTextField.TRAILING);
            outputField = new JTextField(16);
            outputField.setHorizontalAlignment(JTextField.TRAILING);
            outputField.setEditable(false);

            contentPane.add(inputField);
            contentPane.add(outputField);
            contentPane.add(equals);

            contentPane.getRootPane().setDefaultButton(equals);
            baseFrame.setResizable(false);
            baseFrame.setLocation(100, 100);

            baseFrame.setVisible(true);
        }

        /**
         * When an action event takes place, the source is identified and the
         * appropriate action is taken.
         */

        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            if (e.getSource() == equals) {
                inputField.setText(inputField.getText().replaceAll("\\s", ""));
                String text = inputField.getText();
                System.out.println(text);
                Pattern equationPattern = Pattern.compile("[\\d(][\\d-+*/()]+[)\\d]");
                boolean match = equationPattern.matcher(text).matches();
                System.out.println(match);
                if (match) {
                    // Another class calculates
                } else {
                    try {
                        outputField.setText("INPUT ERROR"); // This doesn't appear
                        Thread.sleep(5000);
                        outputField.setText("");
                    } catch (InterruptedException e1) {
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

I'm not actually using a nested class but I wanted it to be able to be contained in one class for you. Sorry about how the GUI looks but again this was to cut down the code. The the important section (if (e.getSource() == equals)) remains unchanged from my code. The simplest way to give an incorrect input is to use letters.

Answer 1

When you use Thread.sleep() you're doing it on the main thread. This freezes the gui for five seconds then it updates the outputField. When that happens, it uses the last set text which is blank.

It's much better to use Swing Timers and here's an example that does what you're trying to accomplish:

if (match) {
    // Another class calculates
} else {
    outputField.setText("INPUT ERROR");
    ActionListener listener = new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event){
            outputField.setText("");
        }
    };
    Timer timer = new Timer(5000, listener);
    timer.setRepeats(false);
    timer.start();
}

Answer 2

As Philip Whitehouse states in his answer, you are blocking the swing Event Dispatch Thread with the Thread.sleep(...) call.

Given that you've taken the time to set up an ActionListener already, it would probably be easiest to use a javax.swing.Timer to control clearing the text. To do this, you could add a field to your GUI class:

    private Timer clearTimer = new Timer(5000, this);

In the constructor for GUI, turn off the repeats feature, as you really only need a one-shot:

    public GUI() {
        clearTimer.setRepeats(false);
        createFrame();
    }

Then, actionPerformed can be modified to use this to start the timer/clear the field:

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        if (e.getSource() == equals) {
            inputField.setText(inputField.getText().replaceAll("\\s", ""));
            String text = inputField.getText();
            System.out.println(text);
            Pattern equationPattern = Pattern.compile("[\\d(][\\d-+*/()]+[)\\d]");
            boolean match = equationPattern.matcher(text).matches();
            System.out.println(match);
            if (match) {
                // Another class calculates
            } else {
                clearTimer.restart();
                outputField.setText("INPUT ERROR"); // This doesn't appear
            }
        } else if (e.getSource() == clearTimer) {
            outputField.setText("");
        }
    }

Answer 3

You're doing a Thread.sleep() in the Swing main thread. This is NOT good practice. You need to use a SwingWorker thread at best.

What's happening is that it's running the first line, hitting Thread.sleep().

This prevents the (main) EDT thread from doing any of the repaints (as well as preventing the next line executing).

You should use a javax.swing.Timer to setup the delayed reaction and not put sleep() calls in the main thread.