Thread: Problem with scope, please help!

I have this program with a fairly modest goal: There's a text field, and a set of keywords. Everytime the user types in the text field, my TestListener triggers and if the text in the field matches one of the predefined keywords, a new button needs to appear in a GridLayout that I've set up below the text field.

However, my issue is that in the context of the program I've written, I can't tell how to add a button to my grid once a keyword is found. Specifically, please have a look at the createAndShowGUI method, and the "keywords" method.

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
 
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
 
import java.beans.PropertyChangeListener;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent;
 
import java.text.*;
 
 
public class RecognizeText extends JPanel
                                    implements TextListener {
 
    private TextField textField;
 
    public RecognizeText() {
        super(new BorderLayout());
 
        textField = new TextField(30);
        textField.addTextListener(this);
 
        JPanel labelPane = new JPanel(new FlowLayout());
        labelPane.add(textField);
 
        add(labelPane, BorderLayout.NORTH);
 
    }
 
    public void textValueChanged(TextEvent e) {
 
        String currentText = textField.getText().toString();
 
        if (keywords(currentText)) {
            playSound(currentText + ".wav");
            textField.setText("");
        }
    }
 
    public static void createAndShowGUI() {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Austin's Program");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
 
        // This 5x5 panel will store the buttons I intend to add.
        JPanel wordPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(5,5));
 
        frame.add(new RecognizeText(), BorderLayout.NORTH);
        frame.add(wordPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
 
        frame.setSize(new Dimension(600,600));
        frame.setVisible(true);
 
    }
 
    public boolean keywords(String toCheck) {
        if (toCheck.equals("one")) {
 
            //THIS IS WHERE I DONT KNOW WHAT TO PUT
 
            return true;
        } 
        if (toCheck.equals("two")) {
            return true;
        } 
        if (toCheck.equals("three")) {
            return true;
        } 
        return false;
    }
 
    // You can ignore this method entirely. It's unrelated to the issue.
    public static void playSound(String filename) {
        new PlaySound("Sounds/" + filename).start();
    }
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        createAndShowGUI();
    }
}

I'm also interested in being able to add Action listeners to these buttons, however I'm fairly confident I can work that part out myself once I learn how to do this!

//THIS IS WHERE I DONT KNOW WHAT TO PUT

What do you want done at that location?

Originally Posted by Norm

What do you want done at that location?

Good point. My explanation was a bit vague. At that spot, I need something like:

wordPanel.add(new JButton(toCheck));

But that's out of scope. So how can I accomplish that action?

Move the variable into scope or make a copy of it that is in scope.

Originally Posted by Norm

Move the variable into scope or make a copy of it that is in scope.

I have no idea how I might accomplish either of those :/

Where is the variable defined that is out of scope? Is it defined local to a method?
Move it out of the method to the class level.