Clicking the textfield and clear the text?

Question

Is it possible that when I clicked the textfield it would clear the recent text that was inputed there?. Mine was like, suppose these are textfields.

   Name: Last Name     First Name      Middle Initial

Then I would click the Last Name and it would be cleared, same as First Name and Middle Initial. thanks for reading, hope you can help me.

What is a textchange event? I'd use a FocusListener for this. — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Oct 07 '12 at 03:32
what if the user wants to correct a single character in one of them after navigating to the next one? do you want him/her to start over every time? — user1406062, Oct 07 '12 at 03:35
@Hussain: that's why he shouldn't delete the text but instead call `selectAll()` on the JTextComponent. This gives the user the option of doing either. — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Oct 07 '12 at 03:37
@Ravindra: what is a `textchange` event?? Are you thinking Android perchance? — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Oct 07 '12 at 03:42
@HovercraftFullOfEels: @Ravindra might want to say `changeUpdate` in `DocumentListener` (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3953208/value-change-listener-to-jtextfield) — user1406062, Oct 07 '12 at 03:57
@hussain: that would be a mighty strange place to place this type of code. — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Oct 07 '12 at 03:58
@HovercraftFullOfEels: it doesn't mean that I agree with what @Ravindra has suggested. The idea of resetting the field content on click is something a programmer should avoid as it drives end users crazy, your suggestion of `selectall()` on `focusGained` seems to be the best alternative — user1406062, Oct 07 '12 at 04:06

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 07 '12 at 03:34

6

Consider a FocusListener, one where all the text is selected:

myTextField.addFocusListener(new FocusAdapter() {
  public void focusGained(FocusEvent fEvt) {
    JTextField tField = (JTextField)fEvt.getSource();
    tField.selectAll();
  }
});

By selecting all of the text, you give the user the option of either typing and thus deleting the current text and replacing it with the new text, or using the mouse or arrow keys to keep the current text and possibly change it.

answered Oct 07 '12 at 03:34

Hovercraft Full Of Eels

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+1 for considering `Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors` ( Ten Usability Heuristics : http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html ) – user1406062 Oct 07 '12 at 04:10

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 07 '12 at 03:44

I think Hovercraft is right. Better to use a FocusListener for this purpose.

I would write a utility class that could deal with this, I've done something similar for auto select. Means I don't have to extend every text component that comes along or mess around with lost of small focus listeners that do the same thing.

public class AutoClearOnFocusManager extends FocusAdapter {

    private static final AutoClearOnFocusManager SHARED_INSTANCE = new AutoClearOnFocusManager();

    private AutoClearOnFocusManager() {

    }

    public static AutoClearOnFocusManager getInstance() {
        return SHARED_INSTANCE;
    }

    @Override
    public void focusGained(FocusEvent e) {
        Component component = e.getComponent();
        if (component instanceof JTextComponent) {
            ((JTextComponent)component).setText(null);
        }
    }

    public static void install(JTextComponent comp) {
        comp.addFocusListener(getInstance());
    }

    public static void uninstall(JTextComponent comp) {
        comp.removeFocusListener(getInstance());
    }        
}

Then you just need to use

JTextField textField = new JTextField("Some text");
AutoClearOnFocusManager.install(textField);

If you're just looking to supply a "prompt" (text inside the field that prompts the user), you could also look at the Prompt API

your users seem to be masochists ;-) – kleopatra Oct 07 '12 at 08:36 — kleopatra, Oct 07 '12 at 08:36
@kleopatra you have no idea :P – MadProgrammer Oct 07 '12 at 08:43 — MadProgrammer, Oct 07 '12 at 08:43

mishamosher · Answer 3 · 2012-10-07T03:46:49.137

0

Why don't use the mouseClicked event?

So, you can have something like

jTextFieldMyText.addMouseListener(new java.awt.event.MouseAdapter() {
    public void mouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
        jTextFieldMyTextMouseClicked(evt);
    }
});

private void jTextFieldMyTextMouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
    jTextFieldMyText.setText("");
}

In the case of focus

jTextFieldMyText.addFocusListener(new java.awt.event.FocusAdapter() {
    public void focusGained(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
        jTextFieldMyTextFocusGained(evt);
    }
});

private void jTextFieldMyTextFocusGained(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
    jTextFieldMyText.setText("");
}

If deleting text inmediatelly isn't what's wanted, use selectAll() instead of setText("") as suggested many times

edited Oct 07 '12 at 03:46

answered Oct 07 '12 at 03:32

mishamosher

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And if the user tabs into the field? No a FocusListener would be better, I think. – Hovercraft Full Of Eels Oct 07 '12 at 03:33
Well, depends on user1694994 thoughts... he said that wanted this to happen on clicking, not on focus... anyway, it's an altenative – mishamosher Oct 07 '12 at 03:36
With a FocusListener, the behavior will occur on clicking if the current text component does not have focus. – Hovercraft Full Of Eels Oct 07 '12 at 03:36
thanks textchange event worked, but yeah i was wondering about if i tab into the field but not clicking on it how am i supposed to do that? – user1694994 Oct 07 '12 at 03:37
I also thought about mouse listener, and even actionListener, but @HovercraftFullOfEels has a very good point about "Tab" to the textfields – PeakGen Oct 07 '12 at 06:05

Clicking the textfield and clear the text?

3 Answers3