add tab to jTabbedPane where each tab has a textArea with a different name java

Question

I am trying to dynamically add tabs to a JTabbedPane i do this with the following code:

private tab = new JTabbedPane();

frame.add(tab, BorderLayout.CENTER);

public void newTab(String tab){
      JPanel panel1 = new JPanel();
      JTextArea tArea = new JTextArea();
      panel1.add(tArea);
      tab.add(tab, panel1);
      }

The problem is that I need the text area name to be viewable through out the class so i can append to it later and there it should be able to lots of tabs so each text area should have a different name.

Any Ideas?

Answer 1

You should use a List of JTextArea s.

private final List<JTextArea> areas = new ArrayList<JTextArea>();

public void newTab(String tab){
      JPanel p = new JPanel();
      JTextArea tArea = new JTextArea();
      p.add(tArea);
      tab.add(tab, p);
      areas.add(tArea);
}

or even a Map (only if the Tab titles are unique).

private final Map<String, JTextArea> areas = new HashMap<String, JTextArea>();

public void newTab(String tab){
      JPanel p = new JPanel();
      JTextArea tArea = new JTextArea();
      p.add(tArea);
      tab.add(tab, p);
      areas.put(tab, tArea);
}

Answer 2

You have a name clash issue

public void newTab(String tab){ // <-- tab declared as String here
    JPanel panel1 = new JPanel();
    JTextArea tArea = new JTextArea();
    panel1.add(tArea);
    tab.add(tab, panel1); // <-- tab (String) doesn't have an add method - error~~
}

Try something like:

public void newTab(String tabName){
    JPanel panel1 = new JPanel();
    JTextArea tArea = new JTextArea();
    panel1.add(tArea);
    tab.add(tabName, panel1); // <-- Now we know which tab we're talking about ;)
}

Instead

Once you have that resolved, the suggested use of Map by @mercutio should work fine