not clear from whole discusion,
you have to remove all Listener(s) from JComboBox before removing all Items, after Items are removed you can add Listener(s) back,
still not sure if you want to add & remove Items dynamically, or you can set whatever value for another JComponent(s),
(against complicating simple things) did you see there remove,
.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class ComboBoxTwo extends JFrame implements ActionListener, ItemListener {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private JComboBox mainComboBox;
private JComboBox subComboBox;
private Hashtable