Java Swing GUI combobox issue

Question

I’m having a strange issue with my swing GUI. I’m trying to make a refresh button clear a combo-box list to refresh the components. Its not working and I’ve probably just made some stupid mistake. Here’s my code:

public class GUI2 extends JFrame implements ActionListener {

/**
 * 
 */
private JPanel contentPane;
public JComboBox combobox;
public ReadJoystick stick;
private JButton refresh;
/**
 * Launch the application.
 */
public static void main(String[] args) {
    EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            try {
                GUI2 frame = new GUI2();
                frame.setVisible(true);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    });
}

/**
 * Create the frame.
 */
public GUI2() {
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    setBounds(100, 100, 450, 300);
    contentPane = new JPanel();
    contentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout(0, 0));
    contentPane.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
    setContentPane(contentPane);
    StickWidget Left = new StickWidget();
    Left.setName("Left Stick");
    contentPane.add(Left.draw(), BorderLayout.WEST);
    StickWidget Right = new StickWidget();
    Right.setName("Right Stick");
    contentPane.add(Right.draw(), BorderLayout.EAST);

    JPanel panel = new JPanel();
    contentPane.add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout(0, 0));

    JPanel panel_1 = new JPanel();
    panel.add(panel_1, BorderLayout.NORTH);
    ReadJoystick stick = new ReadJoystick();
    JComboBox combobox = new JComboBox<Object>(stick.read().toArray());
    combobox.setPrototypeDisplayValue("XXXXXXX"); 
    panel_1.add(combobox);
    JButton btnRefresh = new JButton("Refresh");
    btnRefresh.addActionListener(this);
    panel_1.add(btnRefresh);
}

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
    combobox.removeAll();
   }
}

This code currently reads the joysticks available to the computer and displays them in the combo-box list. Below is a picture of my current GUI:

Every time I press the refresh button it throws this error:

typeException in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
at xxxxxxxx.xxxxxx.xxxxxx.GUI2.actionPerformed(GUI2.java:74)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2018)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2341)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:402)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:259)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(BasicButtonListener.java:252)
at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6516)
at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3321)
at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6281)
at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2229)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4872)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2287)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4698)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4832)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4492)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4422)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2273)
at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2719)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4698)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:747)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$300(EventQueue.java:103)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:706)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:704)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:87)
at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:720)
at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:718)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:717)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:242)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:150)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:146)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:138)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:91)

Answer 1

removeAll is a method which is inherited from Container, which is intended to remove all the child component contained by a container...not really what you want to do.

Instead, you could use combobox.setModel(null) or combobox.setModel(new DefaultComboBoxModel()) which will change the data/model which was backing the combobox previous to a empty version

Swing backs many of it's components with a separate "model", which makes it easy to switch out what is displayed by the views

The NullPointerException is coming from the fact that you've shadowed your combobox variable in your constructor

public GUI2() {
    //...
    JComboBox combobox = new JComboBox<Object>(stick.read().toArray());

This is leaving the class instance field as null, instead it should just read

combobox = new JComboBox<Object>(stick.read().toArray());

Have a look at How to Use Combo Boxes for more details