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class variable not updating after method call

I am quite new to Java and only after researching and googling and reading many answers, I am posting this. I am kinda lost. A little guidance would be of great help. The following is a method from a class that implements the "ActionListener" interface. What I am trying to do is this: There is a button which one clicked should open a new window with two options in the form of two Radio Buttons. I need to know the Radio Button which was selected for further use in my code. I declared, the "scoreOption" variable as a class variable and static, and then attempt to update it in the "actionPerformed" abstract method. But when I refer to it (after the method call), the value stays the same - null, or whatever I set it to initially. Here is the code:
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Scanner;
import javax.swing.ButtonGroup;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JRadioButton;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeListener;
public class StartEvents implements ActionListener {
StartPanel startingPanel;
static String scoreOption;
public StartEvents(StartPanel startPanel) {
startingPanel = startPanel;
}
// Scoring System Window - 1
public void scoringSystem() {
startingPanel.scoringSystem.addActionListener(new ActionListener () {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Panel scoringSystemPanel = new Panel();
JFrame scoreSystemFrame = scoringSystemPanel.frame(150, 250, "Scoring System", 2, true);
JPanel scoreSystemPanel = scoringSystemPanel.panel(Color.lightGray);
JButton confirmSelection = scoringSystemPanel.button(40, 20, "Confirm");
JRadioButton scoreSystem1 = scoringSystemPanel.radioButton("Option 1: Same Points Per Hit");
scoreSystem1.setActionCommand("Option 1");
JRadioButton scoreSystem2 = scoringSystemPanel.radioButton("Option 2: Unique Points Per Hit");
scoreSystem2.setActionCommand("Option 2");
ButtonGroup scoreSys = new ButtonGroup();
scoreSys.add(scoreSystem1);
scoreSys.add(scoreSystem2);
scoreSystemFrame.getContentPane().add(scoreSystemPanel);
scoreSystemPanel.add(scoreSystem1);
scoreSystemPanel.add(scoreSystem2);
scoreSystemPanel.add(confirmSelection);
// Get Selection Event
// Option 1
scoreSystem1.addActionListener(new ActionListener () {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (scoreSystem1.isSelected()) {
scoreOption = scoreSystem1.getActionCommand();
}
}
});
// Option 2
scoreSystem2.addActionListener(new ActionListener () {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (scoreSystem2.isSelected()) {
scoreOption = scoreSystem2.getActionCommand();
}
}
});
// Confirm Event
confirmSelection.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
scoreSystemFrame.dispose();
}
});
}
});
}
Main Game Class where the method scoringsystem is called.
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class Game {
public static void main(String[] args) {
StartPanel startingPanel = new StartPanel();
startingPanel.makeStartPanel();
StartEvents starter = new StartEvents(startingPanel);
starter.rulesButton();
starter.exitButton();
starter.highScoresButton();
ArrayList<Integer> dimensions = starter.boardSizeSelector();
// Problem Zone
System.out.println(StartEvents.scoreOption);
starter.scoringSystem();
System.out.println(StartEvents.scoreOption);
// The two values of scoreOption should be different
String[] playPanelDetails = {"970", "Player 1", "450"};
// Final Start of the Game
starter.startGameButton(playPanelDetails, dimensions);
}
}
Furthermore, could you please let me know regarding the following questions:
Implementing "ActionListener" within another "ActionListener" is recommended? Good Practice?
Can there only be one declaration of the "actionPerformed" method or can it be overloaded too?
Is it possible to get a return value from "actionPerformed" method?
I would be really grateful if even some hints could be provided. I really tried a lot and only then posting it here. Thank you very much in advance.
Small Edit: When I "System.out.println" the "actioncommand" there itself, it does work perfectly, printing in the console. But not when I try to update the class variable and then try to print it after the method call. Dunno if this helps.

JFrames are not modal -- you create one and display it, it does not block the code flow, and so you are extracting the value of scoreOption right as the JFrame is being displayed and before the user has had any chance to change it. You need to use a modal dialog such as a JDialog that is created as a modal dialog or use a JOptionPane (which is actually just a modal JDialog under the hood). This will block the flow of code so that you extract the data only after it has been changed by the user.
An example that proves the point:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class FooGui01 extends JPanel {
private String frameTest = "";
private String dialogTest = "";
private JFrame mainFrame = new JFrame("Main GUI");
private JFrame subFrame;
private JDialog dialog;
public FooGui01() {
JButton showFrameBtn = new JButton("Show JFrame");
showFrameBtn.addActionListener(e -> {
changeTest1WithJFrame();
System.out.println("frameTest: " + frameTest);
});
JButton showDialogBtn = new JButton("Show JDialog");
showDialogBtn.addActionListener(e -> {
changeTest2WithModalDialog();
System.out.println("dialogTest: " + dialogTest);
});
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.add(showDialogBtn);
panel.add(showFrameBtn);
mainFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
mainFrame.add(panel);
mainFrame.pack();
mainFrame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
mainFrame.setVisible(true);
}
public void changeTest1WithJFrame() {
if (subFrame == null) {
subFrame = new JFrame("Frame");
JButton button = new JButton("Press me");
button.addActionListener(e -> {
frameTest = "Hello World and frameTest";
subFrame.setVisible(false);
});
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.add(button);
subFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.HIDE_ON_CLOSE);
subFrame.add(panel);
subFrame.pack();
subFrame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
}
subFrame.setVisible(true);
}
public void changeTest2WithModalDialog() {
if (dialog == null) {
dialog = new JDialog(mainFrame, "Dialog", Dialog.ModalityType.APPLICATION_MODAL);
JButton button = new JButton("Press me");
button.addActionListener(e -> {
dialogTest = "Hello World and dialogTest";
dialog.setVisible(false);
});
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.add(button);
dialog.add(panel);
dialog.pack();
dialog.setLocationByPlatform(true);
}
dialog.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> new FooGui01());
}
}
If you run the code, when you show the sub JFrame, the test text is displayed immediately in the console before the dialog has been dealt with. If you press the button to show the dialog, the test text display is delayed until after the button has been pushed, changing the text.
Pressing the frame button twice will finally show the correct text since the text was set by the first time it was displayed.

A JDialig is just like a JFrame. That is you add components to it like you do any frame.
The difference is that you can make a JDialog modal. This means that when you use:
dialog.setVisible(true);
System.out.println("here");
The code after the setVisible(...) statement will not be executed until the dialog is closed. It also means you can't click on the parent JFrame until the dialog is closed.
An easy way to create a modal JDialog is to use a JOptionPane. It has some predefined methods that make prompting for user input easy.
For example in your case you could do something like:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class SSCCE extends JPanel
{
private int scoringOption = -1;
public SSCCE()
{
JButton button = new JButton("Change Points Option");
add(button);
button.addActionListener((e) -> displayOptionDialog());
}
private void displayOptionDialog()
{
Window window = SwingUtilities.windowForComponent( this );
// Custom button text
Object[] options = {"Option 1: Same Points Per Hit", "Option 2: Unique Points Per Hit"};
scoringOption = JOptionPane.showOptionDialog(
window,
"Select your scoring option:",
"Scoring Option",
JOptionPane.YES_NO_CANCEL_OPTION,
JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE,
null,
options,
null);
System.out.println( scoringOption );
}
private static void createAndShowGUI()
{
JFrame frame = new JFrame("SSCCE");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.add(new SSCCE());
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationByPlatform( true );
frame.setVisible( true );
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater( () -> createAndShowGUI() );
}
}
The above is also an example of an "MRE". The code is simple and contained in a single class that you can copy/paste/compile and test.
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Dialogs for more examples of using a JOptionPane.
If you really want to use radio buttons, then you can create a panel with the radio buttons and display them on the option pane using the showConfirmDialog(...) method. When the dialog closes you would then need to get the action command from the ButtonModel of the ButtonGroup.
See: how to set & manage the layout of JOptionPane for a basic example of this approach to get you started.

How to copy JButton action and change its references to underlying objects?

The following example creates a JFrame with JButton, JTextField and JLabel.
When the button is pressed it increments the value in the text field and label.
This example also creates a 2nd JFrame that is a copy of the first.
The button, text field and label is copied as well.
The issue at hand is the button on the copied frame still updates the text field and label on the original. The 'why' is fairly obvious and is because the code makes specific reference to the text field and label.
Although this isn't written in the best manner but it is a great example of the scenario in which I am addressing.
The objective is, without a major rewrite, what would be the least invasive way to have the copied button action update the copied test field and label instead of the original?
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
class ButtonTextFieldLabel extends JFrame
{
JButton bnt1 = new JButton("B1");
JTextField tf1 = new JTextField("1");
JLabel lbl1 = new JLabel("100");
public ButtonTextFieldLabel()
{
super("Main Frame");
setLayout(null);
bnt1.setBounds(50,100,120,40);
tf1.setBounds(300,100, 80,40);
lbl1.setBounds(200,100,80,40);
bnt1.addActionListener(new ListenerHolder(this));
add(bnt1);
add(tf1);
add(lbl1);
setSize(500,500);
makeCopy(this);
setVisible(true);
}
private void makeCopy(ButtonTextFieldLabel originalObj)
{
JFrame copyFrame = new JFrame();
copyFrame.setTitle("Copy of " + originalObj.getTitle());
copyFrame.setSize(originalObj.getSize());
copyFrame.setLocation(originalObj.getX()+100, originalObj.getY()+100);
copyFrame.setLayout(null);
JButton copyBnt1 = new JButton();
copyBnt1.setBounds(originalObj.bnt1.getBounds());
copyBnt1.setLabel(originalObj.bnt1.getLabel());
copyFrame.add(copyBnt1);
for (ActionListener al : originalObj.bnt1.getActionListeners())
{
copyBnt1.addActionListener(al);
}
JTextField copyTf1 = new JTextField();
copyTf1.setBounds(originalObj.tf1.getBounds());
copyTf1.setText(originalObj.tf1.getText());
JLabel copyLbl1 = new JLabel();
copyLbl1.setBounds(originalObj.lbl1.getBounds());
copyLbl1.setText(originalObj.lbl1.getText());
copyFrame.add(copyBnt1);
copyFrame.add(copyTf1);
copyFrame.add(copyLbl1);
copyFrame.setVisible(true);
}
public void runThis()
{
tf1.setText( Integer.toString(Integer.parseInt(tf1.getText())+1) );
lbl1.setText( Integer.toString(Integer.parseInt(lbl1.getText())+1) );
}
}
class ListenerHolder implements ActionListener
{
ButtonTextFieldLabel ph;
public ListenerHolder(ButtonTextFieldLabel ph)
{
this.ph = ph;
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0)
{
ph.runThis();
}
}
public class TestBTL
{
public static void main(String[] args){
new ButtonTextFieldLabel();
}
}

You already know the reason for the problem -- you're copying the original ActionListener, complete with its reference to the original GUI components. The overall solution is not to copy the action listener but rather to create your GUI's to hold and maintain their own unique state. One solution is rather than try to copy components via kludge, to create a self-contained GUI object that holds and updates its own state. You can create multiple GUI's using a factory method if desired.
For example:
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestBtl2 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> {
createAndDisplayFrame("Frame 1").setVisible(true);
createAndDisplayFrame("Frame 2").setVisible(true);
});
}
// Factory method
private static JFrame createAndDisplayFrame(String text) {
BtlPanel btlPanel = new BtlPanel();
JFrame frame = new JFrame(text);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.add(btlPanel);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
return frame;
}
}
class BtlPanel extends JPanel {
private int value = 0;
private JButton button1 = new JButton(new ButtonAction("Button 1"));
private JLabel label1 = new JLabel("00");
private JTextField textField1 = new JTextField("00");
public BtlPanel() {
textField1.setFocusable(false);
add(button1);
add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(20));
add(label1);
add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(20));
add(textField1);
setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 100));
}
public void incrementValue() {
value++;
String text = String.format("%02d", value);
label1.setText(text);
textField1.setText(text);
}
private class ButtonAction extends AbstractAction {
public ButtonAction(String name) {
super(name);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
incrementValue();
}
}
}
Side Recommendations:
While null layouts and setBounds() might seem to Swing newbies like the easiest and best way to create complex GUI's, the more Swing GUI'S you create the more serious difficulties you will run into when using them. They won't resize your components when the GUI resizes, they are a royal witch to enhance or maintain, they fail completely when placed in scrollpanes, they look gawd-awful when viewed on all platforms or screen resolutions that are different from the original one.
Check out: The Use of Multiple JFrames, Good/Bad Practice?

Using two Frames in a GUI

I'm developing a GUI that is kinda like a menu to control an assembly line. When the program runs, it shows up the window with the first set of buttons. Clicking in a button should make this window disappear and should make another window appear with the previously chosen menu. How do I implement the action on the button? Both menus are in different classes and there's an extra class with the main function that, for now, only creates new objects and set the visibility of the first window to true.
Here are both of them:
Main one:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class InfInd {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Cliente c = new Cliente();
c.setVisible(true);
}
}
The first Menu:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Cliente extends JFrame implements ActionListener {
public JLabel titulo;
public JButton ordens;
public JButton listaordens;
public JButton stats;
public JButton desc;
public JButton sair;
public Cliente() {
titulo = new JLabel("Menu Cliente");
ordens = new JButton ("Ordens");
listaordens = new JButton("Lista Ordens");
stats = new JButton ("Estatísticas");
desc = new JButton ("Peças Descarregadas");
sair = new JButton ("Sair");
setLayout(null);
Dimension size1 = titulo.getPreferredSize();
Dimension size2 = ordens.getPreferredSize();
Dimension size3 = listaordens.getPreferredSize();
Dimension size4 = stats.getPreferredSize();
Dimension size5 = desc.getPreferredSize();
Dimension size6 = sair.getPreferredSize();
titulo.setBounds(100, 50, size1.width, size1.height);
ordens.setBounds(100, 100, size2.width, size2.height);
listaordens.setBounds(100, 150, size3.width, size3.height);
stats.setBounds(100, 200, size4.width, size4.height);
desc.setBounds(100, 250, size5.width, size5.height);
sair.setBounds(100, 300, size6.width, size6.height);
sair.addActionListener(this);
add(titulo);
add(ordens);
add(listaordens);
add(stats);
add(desc);
add(sair);
setSize(500, 500);
setTitle("Teste");
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent out){
System.exit(0);
}
}
The second menu is similar to this one, only with different names for the buttons. The idea is to, for now, just show up the second menu by clicking on the "Ordens" button. Sorry of this seems quite noobish but I've only started with Java GUIs yesterday. Thank you all.

You could do something like this
public class MyFrame extends JFrame {
private JButton jbt = new JButton("Open Window");
private AnotherFrame jfrm = new AnotherFrame(); // another frame
public MyFrame(){
add(jbt);
add(jfrm); // add frame
jbt.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
jfrm.setVisibility(true); // when button clicked, set
} // visibility for other frame true
});
}
private AnotherFrame extends JFrame {
public AnotherFrame(){
}
}
}

Using Keybinding

I'm doing some very basic coding, just trying to learn the basic concepts behind keybinding. It all seems very straightforward but there's something wrong with my logic or structure that is keeping my code from executing the way I want it to.
Here is my code
public class Board {
ButtonListener buttonlistener;
EnterAction enterAction;
public Board(){
JFrame skeleton = new JFrame();
skeleton.setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
skeleton.setVisible(true);
skeleton.setSize(400, 400);
buttonlistener = new ButtonListener();
enterAction = new EnterAction();
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
JButton button = new JButton("button");
button.addActionListener(buttonlistener);
panel.add(button);
skeleton.add(panel);
panel.getInputMap().put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("s"), "doEnterAction");
panel.getActionMap().put("doEnterAction", enterAction);
}
public class ButtonListener implements ActionListener{
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
System.out.println("button pressed");
}
}
public class EnterAction extends AbstractAction{
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("enter pressed");
}
}
public static void main(String[] args){
new Board();
}
So, it should be pretty simple. As you can see I'm just trying to make it print out "enter pressed" whenever you press enter, but it isn't printing out anything (unless you click the button also shown in the code above). Also, in eclipse, the EnterAction class is underlined in yellow, I think it may not be being called right, but I don't know why it wouldn't be.
Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Change
panel.getInputMap().put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("s"), "doEnterAction");
To
panel.getInputMap(JComponent.WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW).put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("S"), "doEnterAction");
Also
skeleton.setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
the parameter must be JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE or just put number 3.

The immediate issue I can see is with the following statement
panel.getInputMap().put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("s"), "doEnterAction");
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("s") is going to return null. The requirements for the String passed to this method are very particular and not well documented (IMHO).
You could use KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("S") instead, but I prefer to use KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_S, 0) as there is no chance of ambiguity in the statement.
I would also recommend that you define the focus boundaries as well for the input map...
Instead of panel.getInputMap(), try using panel.getInputMap(JComponent.WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW) to ensure that the key event will be triggered if the window is focused
Take a look at JComponent#getInputMap for more details.
If you haven't already done so, you should also take a look at How to use Key Bindings

I think Azad and MadProgrammer are correct, I only had to make one more simple change in addition to what they recommended to get the program running. I have numbered the three items for you as a comment in the code: (copy and paste and you are good to go).
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.AbstractAction;
import javax.swing.Action;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.KeyStroke;
public class Board {
ButtonListener buttonlistener;
EnterAction enterAction;
public Board() {
JFrame skeleton = new JFrame();
//Change #1 below
skeleton.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
skeleton.setVisible(true);
skeleton.setSize(400, 400);
buttonlistener = new ButtonListener();
enterAction = new EnterAction();
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
JButton button = new JButton("button");
button.addActionListener(buttonlistener);
panel.add(button);
skeleton.add(panel);
//Change #2 below
panel.getInputMap(JComponent.WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW).put(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("S"), "doEnterAction");
panel.getActionMap().put("doEnterAction", (Action) enterAction);
}
public class ButtonListener implements ActionListener {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
System.out.println("button pressed");
}
}
public class EnterAction extends AbstractAction {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("enter pressed");
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new Board();
}
//Change #3 below
}
here is the screenshot:

How to break this program into several classes

I have found this implementation of a simple calculator in Java, using the Java Swing framework.
The source code is here:
//Imports are listed in full to show what's being used
//could just import javax.swing.* and java.awt.* etc..
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import java.awt.Container;
public class SimpleCalc implements ActionListener{
JFrame guiFrame;
JPanel buttonPanel;
JTextField numberCalc;
int calcOperation = 0;
int currentCalc;
//Note: Typically the main method will be in a
//separate class. As this is a simple one class
//example it's all in the one class.
public static void main(String[] args) {
//Use the event dispatch thread for Swing components
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
#Override
public void run()
{
new SimpleCalc();
}
});
}
public SimpleCalc()
{
guiFrame = new JFrame();
//make sure the program exits when the frame closes
guiFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
guiFrame.setTitle("Simple Calculator");
guiFrame.setSize(300,300);
//This will center the JFrame in the middle of the screen
guiFrame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
numberCalc = new JTextField();
numberCalc.setHorizontalAlignment(JTextField.RIGHT);
numberCalc.setEditable(false);
guiFrame.add(numberCalc, BorderLayout.NORTH);
buttonPanel = new JPanel();
//Make a Grid that has three rows and four columns
buttonPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(4,3));
guiFrame.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
//Add the number buttons
for (int i=1;i<10;i++)
{
addButton(buttonPanel, String.valueOf(i));
}
JButton addButton = new JButton("+");
addButton.setActionCommand("+");
OperatorAction subAction = new OperatorAction(1);
addButton.addActionListener(subAction);
JButton subButton = new JButton("-");
subButton.setActionCommand("-");
OperatorAction addAction = new OperatorAction(2);
subButton.addActionListener(addAction);
JButton equalsButton = new JButton("=");
equalsButton.setActionCommand("=");
equalsButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
{
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
{
if (!numberCalc.getText().isEmpty())
{
int number = Integer.parseInt(numberCalc.getText());
if (calcOperation == 1)
{
int calculate = currentCalc + number;
numberCalc.setText(Integer.toString(calculate));
}
else if (calcOperation == 2)
{
int calculate = currentCalc - number;
numberCalc.setText(Integer.toString(calculate));
}
}
}
});
buttonPanel.add(addButton);
buttonPanel.add(subButton);
buttonPanel.add(equalsButton);
guiFrame.setVisible(true);
}
//All the buttons are following the same pattern
//so create them all in one place.
private void addButton(Container parent, String name)
{
JButton but = new JButton(name);
but.setActionCommand(name);
but.addActionListener(this);
parent.add(but);
}
//As all the buttons are doing the same thing it's
//easier to make the class implement the ActionListener
//interface and control the button clicks from one place
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
{
//get the Action Command text from the button
String action = event.getActionCommand();
//set the text using the Action Command text
numberCalc.setText(action);
}
private class OperatorAction implements ActionListener
{
private int operator;
public OperatorAction(int operation)
{
operator = operation;
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
{
currentCalc = Integer.parseInt(numberCalc.getText());
calcOperation = operator;
}
}
}
I would like to put the OperatorAction class into to a separate class, which I have tried, but then there is a problem getting text from the JTextField, as that is not available in that new class. So how would one do that?

All you need is another constructor argument (and a matching instance field):
class OperatorAction implements ActionListener
{
private int operator;
private SimpleCalc calc;
public OperatorAction(SimpleCalc c, int operation)
{
calc = c;
operator = operation;
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
calc.setCurrentCalc(Integer.parseInt(
((JTextField)event.getSource()).getText()));
calcOperation = operator;
}
}
And expose the SimpleCalc#currentCalc property through a setter.
This is not very clean design, though, because you still have tight coupling between OperatorAction and SimpleCalc, but it could be a start for you.

Looks like you need to be using the Model View Controller (MVC) pattern! MVC is integral to many languages and systems, so it's very important to learn! What you'll want to do is break the program into 3 layers of classes, *M*odels, *V*iews, and *C*ontrollers (in this case, the project is likely simple enough to use just one of each.)
Models are going to store your data, these can be a few classes, or a whole database depending on the size of your project.
Views are going to display your data.
Controllers are going to manage the rest.
So what you'd do here is have a Model that merely stores the input to the calculator, a Controller that takes the input, does the actual math, and pushes the output to the View.