How do I make this java for loop pause for 1/2 a second between each iteration?

Question

private class MultipleGensListener implements ActionListener
   {
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
        {
            for(int i = 0; i < 25; i++)         


        

Answer 1

NEVER BLOCK THE GUI EVENT THREAD

you can use a timer for that and have it only fire 25 times

final Timer t = new Timer(500,null);
t.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
     int i=0;
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
         game.runSimulationOneGen();//run 1 iteration per tick
         changeGrid();
         if(i>25){t.stop();}
         i++;
     }
});
t.setRepeats(true);
t.start();

btw the reason only the last iteration is shown is that gui updates (redraws) are done in a separate event, but to let another event trigger you need to return from the listener method which you didn't

the Timer I showed is a more elaborate iteration which lets other events run in between iterations allowing the gui to show the changes