Thread: MouseDraged

why does this code execute multiple time when I start dragging the text. shouldn't it wait until I release the mouse key and then get the selected text? another problem is that it executes first time with "query=null" and then gets the text .

public class linkListener implements MouseMotionListener{
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent arg0) {
 
		//Handle text selection action.
		query = note.getSelectedText();
 
		System.out.println(query);
		try {
			displayItems();
		} catch (IOException e) {
			// TODO Auto-generated catch block
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}

See MouseMotionListener Interface: mouseDragged.

If you want an event only to be sent when the mouse is pressed/released, see MouseListener Interface.

The mousePressed() method is called whenever the mouse is pressed, then you can check for when the mouse was released using the mouseReleased() method.

Mouse dragged means exactly that:

Every time the mouse is dragged (moved with a button pressed), send an event. What you described is to only send events to your program when the mouse is pressed/released. For all your program could care, the mouse could have magically changed places after the mouse was pressed and then released and the same actions will still happen.