Disable actionListener for JComboBox (when using anonymous class)

Question

I am using actionListener with JComboBox event . I want to disable the listener when I manually set an item selected in my program.

Here you can see this-

String item=null;
String isSetByProgram=false;

jcb1.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae){
                if(isSetByProgram)
                    return;
                item=jcb1.setSelectedItem();
        }
    });

    //Now set by program
    isSetByProgram = true;
    jcb1.setSelectedItem("customItem1");
    isSetByProgram=false;

But here I am getting this:

error: local variables referenced from an inner class must be final or effectively final

How can I do this without making another separate class which extends JComboBox?

Answer 1

Move item and isSetByProgram to private fields of your class. Instance fields exist specifically to store state.

public class MyApplication {
    private boolean isSetByProgram;
    private String item;

    // ...

        jcb1.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae){
                if (isSetByProgram) {
                    return;
                }
                item = jcb1.getSelectedItem();
            }
        });

        //Now set by program
        isSetByProgram = true;
        jcb1.setSelectedItem("customItem1");
        EventQueue.invokeLater(() -> { isSetByProgram = false; });

Answer 2

As far as I know you can't. It is because your anonymous class works on copy of the variable which (if not final) can be changed and this is not allowed in this case.