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Thread: program a button that copy whatever in a JTextArea

  1. #1
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    Default program a button that copy whatever in a JTextArea

    Say there are a JButton called copy, and a JTextArea called txtArea, once the button clicked a copy of whatever in the JTextArea is, moved to the clipboard so that I can paste it to any text editor (e.g. notepad)

    Within the listener ; what is the required code


    [COLOR="Black"]   private class ButtonWatcher implements ActionListener
       {
     
          public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent a)
          {
             // possible code?
           }
     
       }[/COLOR]



  2. #2
    Administrator copeg's Avatar
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    Default Re: program a button that copy whatever in a JTextArea

    JTextArea inherits a copy() method from JTextComponent, so just invoke this method:
    textarea.copy();
    Remember that if there is a selection the copy() method only copies that portion.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: program a button that copy whatever in a JTextArea

    Quote Originally Posted by copeg View Post
    JTextArea inherits a copy() method from JTextComponent, so just invoke this method:
    textarea.copy();
    Remember that if there is a selection the copy() method only copies that portion.
    I used it, no errors, but after clicking the JButton, I expected to be able to right-click on any text editor and normally paste whatever copied from the JTextArea, but that doen't happen

    This is the full code for the class:
    [COLOR="Black"]
    package numbergeneratorchecker;
     
    import java.awt.*;
    import javax.swing.*;
    import java.awt.event.*;
    import java.io.*;
     
    public class NewClass extends JFrame
    {
     
       private JButton click_1;
       private JButton click_2;
       [COLOR="DarkOrange"]private JButton copyy;[/COLOR]
     
       private Panel pn1;
       private Panel pn2;
       private JTextArea txtArea;
       private JScrollPane scrollTxtArea;
     
     
       public NewClass()
       {
          setSize(300, 200);
          setTitle("Number Gererator");
          setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
     
          /********** 2 panels ******************/
          pn1 = new Panel();
          pn2 = new Panel();
     
          /********** 3 button ******************/
          click_1 = new JButton("click_1");
          click_2 = new JButton("click_2");
    [COLOR="darkorange"]      copyy = new JButton("copy");[/COLOR]
     
          /********** text area ******************/
          txtArea = new JTextArea(2, 22);
          scrollTxtArea = new JScrollPane(txtArea);
     
     
     
     
     
          /***********  Interface  *******/
          Container cp = getContentPane();
          cp.setLayout(new GridLayout(3,1));
     
          /***** 2 panels ****/
          cp.add(pn1);
          cp.add(pn2);
     
     
          click_1.addActionListener(new ButtonWatcher());
          click_2.addActionListener(new ButtonWatcher());
          [COLOR="DarkOrange"]copyy.addActionListener(new ButtonWatcher());[/COLOR]
     
          /********** button ******************/
          pn1.add(click_1);
          pn1.add(click_2);
     [COLOR="DarkOrange"]     pn1.add(copyy);[/COLOR]
     
          /******* text area ******/
          pn2.add(scrollTxtArea);
     
       }
       private class ButtonWatcher implements ActionListener
       {
          public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent a)
          {
     
             Object buttonPressed = a.getSource();
             if (buttonPressed.equals(click_1))
             {
                txtArea.setText(" Click_1 is pressed ");
             }
             if (buttonPressed.equals(click_2))
             {
                txtArea.setText(" click_2 is pressed ");
             }
    [COLOR="darkorange"]         if (buttonPressed.equals(copyy))
             {
                txtArea.copy();
             }[/COLOR]
          }
       }
    }[/COLOR]

  4. #4
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    Default Re: program a button that copy whatever in a JTextArea

    Remember that if there is a selection the copy() method only copies that portion.
    Do you mean that this method only works when there is a selected text, and doesn't work otherwise? Ok I have tried both ways (with selected and unselected text) but no result

    If it is the case, then is there a way to copy whatever in JTextArea with just clicking a button without a selection… if it is complex to do that, just correct my use to copy() method .

  5. #5
    Administrator copeg's Avatar
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    Default Re: program a button that copy whatever in a JTextArea

    Read the API for the JTextComponent (Java 2 Platform SE 5.0)
    It only works for the selected text. A workaround is to save the selection, select all, call copy, then reset the original selection. I haven't implemented something like that in a while but it should work. The alternative is to make calls directly to the Clipboard. You can find many solutions to this by googling "java Clipboard copy paste"

  6. #6
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    Default Re: program a button that copy whatever in a JTextArea

    If you go the clipboard way, you might want to take a look at the API for java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection

    db

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