How can I display a different message for a different clicked button?

Question

First I'd like it to be known im VERY new to coding. I would like to have my code be able to produce a different JOptionPane Message for every button clicked

ive tried including t[1][1] = JOptionPane(null, "message") (the location of each button) however the error came up saying you cant convert Jbutton to string.

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

public class jep implements ActionListener{

    public  JButton[][] t = new JButton[6][6];

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new jep();
    }
    static int n = 100;

    public jep()  {

        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Jeopardy");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setSize(1920,1080);
        frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(6, 6));

        frame.setVisible(true);
        for (int r = 0; r < 5; r++) {
            for (int c = 0; c < 6; c++) {
                String vakue = String.valueOf(n);
                t[r][c] = new JButton(vakue);
                t[r][c].setBackground(Color.BLUE);
                t[r][c].setForeground(Color.YELLOW);
                t[r][c].addActionListener(this);
                frame.add(t[r][c]);
            }
            n = n +300;
        }
    }
    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
        JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null,"What's 1+1?");
    }
}

I would like it so that every button clicked says something else... For example if you click the first button it says like "RED" and the second "BLUE" etc...

Answer 1

Right now you are using the same ActionListener for each button with a static string as the message, hence, all the buttons will display the same message.

In the following code, I created a separate inner class called ButtonHandler to be the ActionListener which allows you to pass a message in the constructor. This will allow you to set a separate message for each button. The jep class no longer needs to implement ActionListener in this example since that's handled by a separate class now.

An easy solution to make each button display something unique would be to store the values in an array ahead of time. Here I populate a String array with different color names, and then I use those values to assign the messages to each button.

Also, I changed the condition in your outer for loop to be r<6 because otherwise it would not populate a 6x6 grid

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

public class jep {

    public JButton[][] t = new JButton[6][6];

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new jep();
    }

    static int n = 100;

    public jep() {

        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Jeopardy");

        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setSize(1920, 1080);
        frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(6, 6));
        frame.setVisible(true);

        String[][] messages = new String[6][6];
        for(int r=0; r<6; r++) {
            for(int c=0; c<6; c++) {
                switch(c) {
                    case 0:
                        messages[r][c] = "RED";
                        break;
                    case 1:
                        messages[r][c] = "ORANGE";
                        break;
                    case 2:
                        messages[r][c] = "YELLOW";
                        break;
                    case 3:
                        messages[r][c] = "GREEN";
                        break;
                    case 4:
                        messages[r][c] = "BLUE";
                        break;
                    case 5:
                        messages[r][c] = "INDIGO";
                        break;
                }
            }
        }

        for (int r = 0; r < 6; r++) {
            for (int c = 0; c < 6; c++) {
                String vakue = String.valueOf(n);
                t[r][c] = new JButton(vakue);
                t[r][c].setBackground(Color.BLUE);
                t[r][c].setForeground(Color.YELLOW);
                t[r][c].addActionListener(new ButtonHandler(messages[r][c]));
                frame.add(t[r][c]);
            }
            n = n + 300;
        }
    }

    private class ButtonHandler implements ActionListener {
        private String message;

        public ButtonHandler(String message) {
            this.message = message;
        }

        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
            JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, message);
        }
    }
}

Hope this helps!

Edit: combined examples for conciseness...

Answer 2

Another alternative to this valid answer:
You can change the action listener to identify which button was clicked, and respond accordingly:

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

    String value = e.getActionCommand();
    String message = "";

    switch(value){
        case "100":
            message = "RED";
            break;
        case "400":
            message = "BLUE";
            break;
        default:
            message = "Un recognized button pressed";
            break;
    }

    JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null,message);
}

Side notes: do not frame.setSize(1920, 1080); instead set preferred size and have

    frame.pack();
    frame.setVisible(true);

at the end of the constructor, after all components have been added.