How do I get a delay between putting a ImageIcon on a JButton?

Question

The method placePiece correctly places an ImageIcon on a JButton. I would like the image to remain there for one second and then be replaced with a different colored ImageIcon. The problem with the following code is that the red ImageIcon never appears. The delay takes place and then the black ImageIcon appears. I would like the red ImageIcon to appear, then have a 1 second delay, and then the black one appear. Thanks in advance for any help.

placePiece(0, 3, "red");
//delay 1 second here
try 
{
    Thread.sleep(1000);
}
catch (Exception exc)  { }
placePiece(0, 3, "black");

Answer 1

I would suggest you using Java's javax.swing.Timer .

There is a tutorial here: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/misc/timer.html

In the timer, you can easily get the interval by setting it in the parameter under speed as shown below.

int speed = 1000;  //delay of 1 second
timer = new Timer(speed, obj);

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Further more, when you use Thread.sleep(1000) , there is no guarantee that it will always be delayed by 1 second.

Answer 2

You may use like

placePiece(0, 3, "red");
int delay = 1000; 
 ActionListener taskPerformer = new ActionListener() {
  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
      placePiece(0, 3, "black");
  }
};
new Timer(delay, taskPerformer).start();

Thread.sleep() is not good practice with swing.