Synchronized JList and JComboBox?

Question

In Java Swing, what\'s the best way for a JList and a JComboBox to be synchronized in terms of the data, i.e., to have the same list of items at an

Answer 1

Your models - the ListModel for the list and the ComboboxModel for the combobox - need to be synchronized.

In the general case this would mean writing a special implementation of the models, but in your case you have luck: DefaultComboBoxModel in fact implements ListModel, so you simply can use the same model object for both your components.

JList list = new JList();
JComboBox comboBox = new JComboBox();
DefaultComboBoxModel listModel = new DefaultComboBoxModel();
// add items to listModel...
list.setModel(listModel);
comboBox.setModel(listModel);

Answer 2

You could have them share the same model, probably a DefaultComboBoxModel since it implements ListModel and thus should work for both the JComboBox and the JList. For example:

 import java.awt.Dimension;
 import java.awt.GridLayout;
 import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
 import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

 import javax.swing.*;

 public class ShareComboModel {
      private static final int TIMER_DELAY = 2000;

      public static void main(String[] args) {
           SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
                public void run() {
                     createGui();
                }
           });
      }

      private static void createGui() {
           String[] data = {"Fe", "Fi", "Fo", "Fum"};

           final DefaultComboBoxModel model = new DefaultComboBoxModel(data);

           JComboBox combobox = new JComboBox(model);
           JList jlist = new JList(model);

           new Timer(TIMER_DELAY, new ActionListener() {
                private int count = 0;
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                     model.addElement("count: " + count);
                     count++;
                }
           }).start();

           JPanel comboPanel = new JPanel();
           comboPanel.add(combobox);

           JPanel listPanel = new JPanel();
           listPanel.add(new JScrollPane(jlist));          

           JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 0));
           panel.add(comboPanel);
           panel.add(listPanel);
           panel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 200));

           JFrame frame = new JFrame("App");
           frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
           frame.getContentPane().add(panel);
           frame.pack();
           frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
           frame.setVisible(true);
      }
 }