More efficient way to add multiple button groups

Question

I am trying to make a personality quiz in java using the swing library. There are 5 questions that each have 3 possible answers. Right now I'm building the interface but I'm struggling to add multiple groups of buttons to my createComponents method.

So for the sake of clarity and making it easier to read, I made a separate method for my first question text. That has been added no problem. But I run into issues with the button groups. I didn't want to load up my createComponents method with multiple lines and lines and lines of repetitive add Buttongroups stuff because I read that excluding comments, methods should be 15 lines long max. or at least for a beginner.

So I made a separate method for my button groups which I then tried to add to the createComponents method. this gave me an error saying there is no suitable method to add a button group to my container.

Right now I am writing multiple lines of code in my createComponent method so that I can 'correctly' add my radio buttons. I'm only on the first question and already have 16 lines in my method. there's a better, more efficient way right?

private void createComponents(Container container){

    BoxLayout layout = new BoxLayout(container, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
    container.setLayout(layout);

    JLabel text = new JLabel("this is the intro text");
    container.add((text), BorderLayout.NORTH);

    container.add(QuizIntro());
    container.add(QuestionOne());
    container.add(QuestionOneGroup());
// this throws an error

    JRadioButton int1 = new JRadioButton("This is answer choice 1");
    JRadioButton ent1 = new JRadioButton("This is answer choice 2");
    JRadioButton jb1 = new JRadioButton("This is answer choice 3");
    ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
    group.add(int1);
    group.add(ent1);
    group.add(jb1);
    container.add(int1);
    container.add(ent1);
    container.add(jb1);
// this is the 'correct' way I've been doing it. 
}

public ButtonGroup QuestionOneGroup(){

    JRadioButton int1 = new JRadioButton("This is answer choice 1");
    JRadioButton ent1 = new JRadioButton("This is answer choice 2");
    JRadioButton jb1 = new JRadioButton("This is answer choice 3");
    ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
    group.add(int1);
    group.add(ent1);
    group.add(jb1);
    return group;
// this is the method I made to add a buttongroup and make my createComponent easier to read. 
}

So my expected output is just a barebones window with the question and the 3 possible answer choices but I get an error telling me no suitable method. it says "argument mismatch buttongroup cannot be converted to popup menu or component".

Answer 1

You can only add Components to a Container.

A ButtonGroup is NOT a Component.

A ButtonGroup is used to indicate which component of a group of components has been selected. You still need to add each individual radio button to a panel.

Your code should be something like:

//public ButtonGroup QuestionOneGroup()
public JPanel questionOneGroup()
{
    JRadioButton int1 = new JRadioButton("This is answer choice 1");
    JRadioButton ent1 = new JRadioButton("This is answer choice 2");
    JRadioButton jb1 = new JRadioButton("This is answer choice 3");
    ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
    group.add(int1);
    group.add(ent1);
    group.add(jb1);
    //return group;

    JPanel panel = new JPanel();
    panel.add( int1 );
    panel.add( ent1 );
    panel.add( jb1 );
    return panel;
}

Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Radio Buttons for more information and working examples.