Java The Complete Reference, Seventh Edition

Adapter Classes

Java provides a special feature, called anadapter class,that can simplify the creation of event

handlers in certain situations. An adapter class provides an empty implementation of all

methods in an event listener interface. Adapter classes are useful when you want to receive

and process only some of the events that are handled by a particular event listener interface.

You can define a new class to act as an event listener by extending one of the adapter classes

and implementing only those events in which you are interested.

For example, theMouseMotionAdapterclass has two methods,mouseDragged( )

andmouseMoved( ), which are the methods defined by theMouseMotionListener

interface. If you were interested in onlymouse drag events, then you could simply extend

MouseMotionAdapterand overridemouseDragged( ). The empty implementation of

mouseMoved( )would handle the mouse motion events for you.

Table 22-4 lists the commonly used adapter classes injava.awt.eventand notes the

interface that each implements.

The following example demonstrates an adapter. It displays a message in the status bar

of an applet viewer or browser when the mouse is clicked or dragged. However, all other

mouse events are silently ignored. The program has three classes.AdapterDemoextends

Applet. Itsinit( )method creates an instance ofMyMouseAdapterand registers that object

to receive notifications of mouse events. It also creates an instance ofMyMouseMotionAdapter

and registers that object to receive notifications of mouse motion events. Both of the constructors

take a reference to the applet as an argument.

MyMouseAdapterextendsMouseAdapterand overrides themouseClicked( )method.

The other mouse events are silently ignored by code inherited from theMouseAdapter

class.MyMouseMotionAdapterextendsMouseMotionAdapterand overrides the

mouseDragged( )method. The other mouse motion event issilently ignored by code

inherited from theMouseMotionAdapterclass.

Note that both of the event listener classes save a reference to the applet. This information

is provided as an argument to their constructors and is used later to invoke theshowStatus( )

method.

// Demonstrate an adapter.

import java.awt.*;

import java.awt.event.*;

import java.applet.*;

/*

Chapter 22: Event Handling 659

Adapter Class Listener Interface

ComponentAdapter ComponentListener

ContainerAdapter ContainerListener

FocusAdapter FocusListener

KeyAdapter KeyListener

MouseAdapter MouseListener

MouseMotionAdapter MouseMotionListener

WindowAdapter WindowListener

TABLE 22-4

Commonly Used

Listener Inter faces

Implemented by

Adapter Classes