Thread: Tell java to do a something when timer ticks

I created a tick class that ticks every second:

package com.dayz.testmod;
 
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
 
import javax.swing.Timer;
 
public class Tick {
 
	ActionListener action = new ActionListener(){
 
		@Override
		public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
		System.out.println("Tick!");	
		}
 
	};
 
	Timer t = new Timer(2000, action);
	public void start(){
		t.start();

I want java to do something when it ticks without putting it in the action performed method.

That would not be possible. The ActionListener is the only way to know when the timer has run through.

But I guess what you want is to have your own Listener class that listens to ticks of your Tick class. If this is the case you should probably read a little bit about the observer-pattern and maybe look at some example implementation of other classes. Observers (in swing they are called listeners) are a very common programming standard.

You might also consider an EventBus design.