How to Write a Change Listener

A change listener is similar to a property change listener. A change listener is registered on an object — typically a component, but it could be another object, like a model — and the listener is notified when the object has changed. The big difference from a property change listener is that a change listener is not notified of what has changed, but simply that the source object has changed. Therefore, a change listener is most useful when it is only necessary to know when an object has changed in any way.

Several Swing components (including JTabbedPane, JViewPort) rely on change events for basic functionality — sliders, color choosers and spinners. To learn when the value in a slider changes, you need to register a change listener. Similarly, you need to register a change listener on a color chooser to be informed when the user chooses a new color. You register a change listener on a spinner, to be notified when the spinner's value changes.

Here is an example of change event handling code for a slider:

//...where initialization occurs:
framesPerSecond.addChangeListener(new SliderListener());
...
class SliderListener implements ChangeListener {
    public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
        JSlider source = (JSlider)e.getSource();
        if (!source.getValueIsAdjusting()) {
            int fps = (int)source.getValue();
            ...
        }    
    }
}

You can find the source file for SliderDemo in the example index for Using Swing Components.

The Change Listener API

The ChangeListener Interface

Because ChangeListener has only one method, it has no corresponding adapter class.

The ChangeEvent Class

Examples that Use Change Listeners

The following table lists the examples that use change listeners.