Thread: Help displaying a new string to GUI

Please Edit your post and wrap your code with[code=java]<YOUR CODE HERE>[/code] to get highlighting.

how to display the new string in the original window when you open up the txt file.

Can you explain what this means? What is "the original window"?
You can use a text field to display a String. Or perhaps a JLabel.

The original window is the first window that opens when you run the program, it's the one that displays the text, from the text file that you open. What's suppose to happen is when you use the search from the drop down menu, the Search and Replace window opens and you enter your desired information, however when you hit replace it just closes the Windows and doesn't replace text from the original window. However the printout lines display the correct information

So the variable name for holding the string from the GUI is copyOfInputStream and the variable holding the new string is newString. And what I need is for newString to display in the Original window of the GUI

{
                    String first = original.substring (0,startPt);
                    String second = original.substring (floatPt);
                    original = first + toReplace + second;
                    floatPt = startPt + toReplace.length ( );
                  String newString = original + floatPt;
                  copyOfDisplayArea.setText(newString);
                }

Here is new code that I changed recently but it's still now working

what I need is for newString to display in the Original window of the GUI

Where do you what to display it? Do you have a place to show it? It must be in an object in the GUI.
Do you have a reference variable for the Original window? Use that to access the variable where you want to pass newString.

oh sorry the code should be like this

import java.io.*;
import java.util.Scanner;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Gui extends JFrame implements ActionListener
{
    public JMenuBar mainMenu;
    public JMenu fileMenu;
    public JMenuItem searchMenuItem;
    public JMenuItem openItem;
    public JMenuItem saveItem;
    public JMenuItem exitItem;
    public JMenuItem miscItem;
    public JMenuItem aItem;
    public JMenuItem bItem;
    public JMenuItem cItem;
    public Container contentPane;
    String inputStream;
 
    JTextArea displayArea;
    JScrollPane scrollPane;
    Gui copyOfMainWindow;
 
    public static void main (String [ ]args)
    {
     Gui mainWindow = new Gui ();
      mainWindow.setVisible (true);
 
    }
 
    public Gui ()
    {
        setSize (400,600);
        contentPane = getContentPane ( );
        setDefaultCloseOperation (EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
 
        mainMenu = new JMenuBar ();
        fileMenu = new JMenu ("file");
        searchMenuItem = new JMenuItem ("search");
        searchMenuItem.addActionListener(this);
 
        mainMenu.add (fileMenu);
 
 
        openItem = new JMenuItem ("open");
        openItem.addActionListener(this);
        saveItem = new JMenuItem ("save");
        exitItem = new JMenuItem ("exit");
 
        miscItem = new JMenu ("misc");
        aItem = new JMenuItem ("a");
        bItem = new JMenuItem ("b");
        cItem = new JMenuItem ("c");
        miscItem.add (aItem);
        miscItem.add (bItem);
        miscItem.add (cItem);
 
        fileMenu.add (openItem);
        fileMenu.add (saveItem);
        fileMenu.add (searchMenuItem);
        fileMenu.add (exitItem);
        fileMenu.add (miscItem);
 
        setJMenuBar (mainMenu);
 
        displayArea = new JTextArea ("",40,50);
        scrollPane = new JScrollPane (displayArea);
        contentPane.add (scrollPane); //default: FlowLayout
 
 
 
    }
 
    public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent ex)
    {
        String whichOne = ex.getActionCommand();
        if (whichOne.equals ("open"))
            openAndDisplay ();
        else if (whichOne.equals ("search"))
            searchAndReplace ();
 
 
 
 
 
    }
 
    public void searchAndReplace ()
    {
 
        DialogBox a = new DialogBox (inputStream, displayArea);
 
 
 
    }
 
    public void openAndDisplay ()
    {
        File aFile = null;
        JFileChooser fileChooser = new JFileChooser ( );
	if (fileChooser.showOpenDialog (null) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)
		aFile = fileChooser.getSelectedFile ( );
 
        Scanner inFile = null;
        boolean fileOK = false;
 
        try
        {
            inFile = new Scanner (aFile);
            fileOK = true;
        }
        catch (FileNotFoundException ex)
        {
            inputStream = "";
        }
 
        if (fileOK)
        {
            while (inFile.hasNext ( ))
		inputStream += (inFile.nextLine ( ) + "\n");
 
        }
 
        displayArea.setText (inputStream);
        inFile.close ();
 
    }
 
 
}

and

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
 
public class DialogBox extends JFrame implements ActionListener
{
    private JTextField searchField;
    private JTextField replaceField;
    private JLabel searchLabel;
    private JLabel replaceLabel;
    private Container contentPane;
    private JMenuBar mainMenu;
    private JMenuItem okMenuItem;
    private JMenuItem clearMenuItem;
    private JMenu actionMenu;
 
    private String copyOfInputStream;
    private JTextArea copyOfDisplayArea;
 
 
    public DialogBox (String inputStream, JTextArea displayArea)
    {
        setSize (200,50);
        setDefaultCloseOperation (DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);       
        contentPane = getContentPane ();
 
 
        mainMenu = new JMenuBar ();
        actionMenu = new JMenu ("action");
        mainMenu.add (actionMenu);
        okMenuItem = new JMenuItem ("ok");
        clearMenuItem = new JMenuItem ("clear");
        okMenuItem.addActionListener(this);
        clearMenuItem.addActionListener(this);
 
        actionMenu.add (okMenuItem);
        actionMenu.add (clearMenuItem);
        setJMenuBar (mainMenu);
 
        searchLabel = new JLabel ("search for:");
        replaceLabel = new JLabel ("replace with:");
        searchField  = new JTextField (20);
        replaceField = new JTextField (20);
 
        searchField.setText ("");
        replaceField.setText ("");
 
 
        contentPane.setLayout (new FlowLayout ());
        contentPane.add (searchLabel);
        contentPane.add (searchField);
        contentPane.add (replaceLabel);
        contentPane.add (replaceField);
 
        copyOfInputStream = inputStream;
        copyOfDisplayArea = displayArea;
 
        this.setVisible (true);
 
 
 
    }
 
    public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent ex)
    {
        String whichOne = ex.getActionCommand();
 
        if (whichOne.equals ("clear"))
        {
            searchField.setText ("");
            replaceField.setText ("");
        }
        else if (whichOne.equals ("ok"))
        {
        	String original = copyOfInputStream;
        	String toSearch = searchField.getText ();
            String toReplace =  replaceField.getText ();
 
            int startPt = 0;
            int floatPt = 0;
            do
            {
                if (floatPt == original.length ( ))
                 System.exit (0);
 
                int searchPt = 0; 
 
                do
                {
                    if (toSearch.charAt (searchPt) == original.charAt (floatPt))
                        break;
                    else
                    {
                        floatPt++;
                        if (floatPt == original.length( )) 
                        	System.exit (0);
 
                    }        
 
                } while (true);
 
 
 
 
                startPt = floatPt;
                searchPt++; floatPt++;
 
                boolean aMatchFound = true;
                while (searchPt < toSearch.length ( ))
                {
                   if (toSearch.charAt (searchPt) == original.charAt (floatPt))
                   {
 
                      searchPt++; floatPt++;
 
                   }
                   else
                   {
                     aMatchFound = false;  
                     break;
                   }
                }
 
                if (!aMatchFound)
                {
 
                   continue;
                }
 
                else
                {
                    String first = original.substring (0,startPt);
                    String second = original.substring (floatPt);
                    original = first + toReplace + second;
                    floatPt = startPt + toReplace.length ( );
                  String newString = original + floatPt;
                  copyOfDisplayArea.setText(newString);
                }
            } while (true);
 
 
 
        }
  }
 
}

You didn't answer any of my questions.
What component do you want to display the string in?

oh sorry, I want newString from DialogBox to pass back to displayArea in my GUI

Do you have a reference to the class that contains displayArea in the DialogBox class?
Use it to reference displayArea:
theRefToTheClass.displayArea.setText(newString);

so i would put in
Gui.displayArea.setText(newString);
but when I do all my windows still close when using the search and replace

Your code already calls setText() .
Is is being executed? Add some printlns to show where the execution flow is going to prove that the setText is called.

It is not called when I execute the program.
The contents of the file the program reads is displayed in the text area.

Your code executes and displays the contents of the file that was read in the text area.
Can you explain what the problem is? It is displaying text for me.

are you running the second set of code i posted? because when i run that one all my windows still close....

do you also do the search and replace?

You need to create a testing version of the code that requires minimum interactions from the user.
Pre load all the variables that need values so that all a tester needs to do is press the Search menu item and then press the ok menu item and the code does whatever it needs to do to show the problem.
Just those two menu items are all I want to press for testing. Trying to set up the rest of the program is a big waste of time for the problem you are trying to solve.
Set it up for easy testing or wait for someone else that is willing to go through all the steps it takes to get to where the problem is.

alright then well thank you for your help, i don't have time to do test code and stuff, thanks again

Good luck. In the future try to prepare the code for easy testing. This one takes too much time to set up.

i run that one all my windows still close....

That's because the code calls: System.exit(0);
Remove that call and the windows will stay open

thank that stoped the windows from closing and actually does the replace, but a new error now lol

If you are getting error messages, you should post the full text here if you want help fixing them.