Draw a line in a JPanel with button click in Java

Question

I want to draw a line in a JPanel. This is my GUI and I want a line in the JPanel in white.

Answer 1

It may be easier to draw lines using the following approach:

1. click to mark the first endpoint
2. drag to show the line in progress
3. release to mark the second endpoint

This related example may offer some additional guidance.

Addendum

1. The example below implements the outline above.
2. I've update the example to show how to use a panel of buttons to affect the drawing.
3. See also this related example that uses the Action interface with key bindings.
4. I've updated this example to use Key Bindings.

LinePanel.java

import java.awt.BasicStroke;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.Point;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import javax.swing.AbstractAction;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.KeyStroke;

/**
 * @see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6991648
 * @see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6887296
 * @see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5797965
 */
public class LinePanel extends JPanel {

    private MouseHandler mouseHandler = new MouseHandler();
    private Point p1 = new Point(100, 100);
    private Point p2 = new Point(540, 380);
    private boolean drawing;

    public LinePanel() {
        this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(640, 480));
        this.addMouseListener(mouseHandler);
        this.addMouseMotionListener(mouseHandler);
    }

    @Override
    protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        super.paintComponent(g);
        Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
        g2d.setColor(Color.blue);
        g2d.setRenderingHint(
            RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
            RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
        g2d.setStroke(new BasicStroke(8,
            BasicStroke.CAP_ROUND, BasicStroke.JOIN_BEVEL));
        g.drawLine(p1.x, p1.y, p2.x, p2.y);
    }

    private class MouseHandler extends MouseAdapter {

        @Override
        public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
            drawing = true;
            p1 = e.getPoint();
            p2 = p1;
            repaint();
        }

        @Override
        public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
            drawing = false;
            p2 = e.getPoint();
            repaint();
        }

        @Override
        public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
            if (drawing) {
                p2 = e.getPoint();
                repaint();
            }
        }
    }

    private class ControlPanel extends JPanel {

        private static final int DELTA = 10;

        public ControlPanel() {
            this.add(new MoveButton("\u2190", KeyEvent.VK_LEFT, -DELTA, 0));
            this.add(new MoveButton("\u2191", KeyEvent.VK_UP, 0, -DELTA));
            this.add(new MoveButton("\u2192", KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT, DELTA, 0));
            this.add(new MoveButton("\u2193", KeyEvent.VK_DOWN, 0, DELTA));
        }

        private class MoveButton extends JButton {

            KeyStroke k;
            int dx, dy;

            public MoveButton(String name, int code,
                    final int dx, final int dy) {
                super(name);
                this.k = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(code, 0);
                this.dx = dx;
                this.dy = dy;
                this.setAction(new AbstractAction(this.getText()) {

                    @Override
                    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                        LinePanel.this.p1.translate(dx, dy);
                        LinePanel.this.p2.translate(dx, dy);
                        LinePanel.this.repaint();
                    }
                });
                ControlPanel.this.getInputMap(WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW)
                    .put(k, k.toString());
                ControlPanel.this.getActionMap()
                    .put(k.toString(), new AbstractAction() {

                    @Override
                    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                        MoveButton.this.doClick();
                    }
                });
            }
        }
    }

    private void display() {
        JFrame f = new JFrame("LinePanel");
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.add(this);
        f.add(new ControlPanel(), BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        f.pack();
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                new LinePanel().display();
            }
        });
    }
}