CardLayout not switching panels when called next()

Question

This is a sample demo program that I got from Oracle's Java Tutorial website. Originally the method itemStateChanged() was implemented like this:

public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent evt) {
    CardLayout cl = (CardLayout)(cards.getLayout());
    cl.show(cards, (String)evt.getItem());
}

I changed it to this:

public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent evt) {
    CardLayout cl = (CardLayout)(cards.getLayout());
    cl.next(cards);
}

According to the JavaDoc API, the next() method is supposed to flip the panel, but it is not happening. This is the complete code:

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class CardLayoutDemo implements ItemListener {
    JPanel cards; //a panel that uses CardLayout
    final static String BUTTONPANEL = "Card with JButtons";
    final static String TEXTPANEL = "Card with JTextField";

    public void addComponentToPane(Container pane) {
        //Put the JComboBox in a JPanel to get a nicer look.
        JPanel comboBoxPane = new JPanel(); //use FlowLayout
        String comboBoxItems[] = { BUTTONPANEL, TEXTPANEL };
        JComboBox cb = new JComboBox(comboBoxItems);
        cb.setEditable(false);
        cb.addItemListener(this);
        comboBoxPane.add(cb);

        //Create the "cards".
        JPanel card1 = new JPanel();
        card1.add(new JButton("Button 1"));
        card1.add(new JButton("Button 2"));
        card1.add(new JButton("Button 3"));

        JPanel card2 = new JPanel();
        card2.add(new JTextField("TextField", 20));

        //Create the panel that contains the "cards".
        CardLayout cl = new CardLayout();
        cards = new JPanel(cl);
        cards.add(card1, BUTTONPANEL);
        cards.add(card2, TEXTPANEL);
        cl.show(cards, BUTTONPANEL);

        pane.add(comboBoxPane, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
        pane.add(cards, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    }

    public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent evt) {
        CardLayout cl = (CardLayout)(cards.getLayout());
        cl.next(cards);
    }

    /**
     * Create the GUI and show it.  For thread safety,
     * this method should be invoked from the
     * event dispatch thread.
     */
    private static void createAndShowGUI() {
        //Create and set up the window.
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("CardLayoutDemo");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        //Create and set up the content pane.
        CardLayoutDemo demo = new CardLayoutDemo();
        demo.addComponentToPane(frame.getContentPane());

        //Display the window.
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        /* Use an appropriate Look and Feel */
        try {
            //UIManager.setLookAndFeel("com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel");
            UIManager.setLookAndFeel("javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel");
        } catch (UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IllegalAccessException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } catch (InstantiationException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }
        /* Turn off metal's use of bold fonts */
        UIManager.put("swing.boldMetal", Boolean.FALSE);

        //Schedule a job for the event dispatch thread:
        //creating and showing this application's GUI.
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowGUI();
            }
        });
    }
}

The original code is here: CardLayoutDemo.java

Answer 1

Your itemStateChanged event is actually been called twice (this is normal behavior), so the layout manager is switch from your current pane, to the next and then to the next (which was the original).

You should use an ActionListener instead.