How would I code when a item has been selected in a JList?

Question

I have a JList with 5 options in it and when one of the items becomes selected or clicked i want the text area next to it to show a paragraph of text relative to the item clicked. It should do this for each item in the list but I cant seem to find how to do it in the API

How would my program know if an item in the JList was selected so I can work with the data?

Answer 1

Use addListSelectionListener . You can create a subclass (anonymous or not) of ListSelectionListener that does the work you want.

myList.addListSelectionListener(new ListSelectionListener()
{
  public void valueChanged(ListSelectionEvent ev)
  {
    // handle ev
  } 
});

Answer 2

You should register a Listener for events on your JList. When the Swing UI fires one off, this Listener class will get the message and react accordingly.