Thread: Buttons out of scope for setBounds()

I'm working on a project (which we have not learned to load other classes over our existing window) which on button press I want to remove all elements from the screen by just positioning them off screen by 1000 px. I have two different select buttons which have different variables attached to them but essentially I want them to do the same thing which is move everything by 1000 px in the x direction. One other buttons works, but the other button will work for everthing but the button below it because it is out of scope. Is there anyway I can grab the positioning from below in the code to change it higher up. the snipit of my code that im having issues with follows:

		final JButton btnWarrior = new JButton("Warrior");
		btnWarrior.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
			public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {		
				hp = 30;
				att = 5;
				System.out.println(hp+"    "+att);
				btnWarrior.setBounds(-942, 97, 89, 23);
				btnAssassin.setBounds(-710, 97,89,23);
				lblTitle.setBounds(-990, 11, 414, 43);
				lblHpW.setBounds(-915, 131, 46, 14);
				lblAttW.setBounds(-915, 168, 46, 14);
				lblHpA.setBounds(-687, 131, 46, 14);
				lblAttA.setBounds(-700, 168, 79, 14);
			}
		});
		btnWarrior.setBounds(58, 97, 89, 23);
		frame.getContentPane().add(btnWarrior);
 
		final JButton btnAssassin = new JButton("Assassin");
		btnAssassin.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
			public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
				hp = 25;
				att = 4;
				System.out.println(hp+"    "+att);
				btnAssassin.setBounds(-710, 97,89,23);
				btnWarrior.setBounds(-942, 97, 89, 23);
				lblTitle.setBounds(-990, 11, 414, 43);
				lblHpW.setBounds(-915, 131, 46, 14);
				lblAttW.setBounds(-915, 168, 46, 14);
				lblHpA.setBounds(-687, 131, 46, 14);
				lblAttA.setBounds(-700, 168, 79, 14);
 
			}
		});

btnAssassin is out of scope of the actions performed in btnWarrior. Is there anything I can do to change the scope

It looks like you're having your JButtons swap position and are running into a problem as your JButtons are not class fields. Suggestions:

• Make your JButtons, or perhaps better, a JButton[] array or ArrayList, into class fields.
• Myself, I avoid using absolute positioning if at all possible. Instead try to use a smart combination of nested layouts.
• Rather than try to swap JButton positions, why not leave the JButtons where they are, and simply swap the Actions that they hold. If done right, the JButton's text, icons and behaviors will all swap with this, and you don't have to revalidate or repaint your GUI.

Thanks, In the future I plan to be rid of the absolute layout but im using it now as requested in class. I ended up establishing the button at the top of the of the class with

public class Index extends JFrame{
	JButton btnAssassin;

and at the bottom with

		btnAssassin = new JButton("Assassin");

to repair the scope. Thanks for the tips ill research the arrays and try to apply that next.

--- Update ---

I would like to add I am creating a game so I would need to repaint the GUI for each segment of the game, this one would be the character select screen but I have a movement and fight screen as well.