Java Swing CardLayout

Java Swing CardLayout manages components in a stack where only the top one is visible at any time. Normally all components with the same display time are placed in a JPanel when using with CardLayout.

The user can choose which components to display by making choices through UI such as selecting from an item from combobox or choosing a tab from the tabbed pane.

These are important methods you need to know when working with the CardLayout:

Methods	Description
public  first(Container parent)	Shows the first card of the parent container
public next(Container parent)	Shows the next card of the parent container. If the current visible card is the last one, it will flip to the first one.
public previous(Container parent)	Shows to the previous card of the parent container. If the current visible card is the first one, it will flip to the last one.
public  last(Container parent)	Show the last card of the parent container.
public  show(Container parent,String name)	Show the card with a given name.

In the demo application, we will show you how first, next, previous and last function work in CardLayout. When the user clicks each control button, the card will flip accordingly.

Here are screenshots of the CardLayout demo application:

package cardlayoutdemo;

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

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        final String card1Text = "Card 1";
        final String card2Text = "Card 2";
        final String card3Text = "Card 3";
        final JPanel cards; //a panel that uses CardLayout
        // button commands
        final String FIRST = "FIRST";
        final String NEXT = "NEXT";
        final String PREVIOUS = "PREVIOUS";
        final String LAST = "LAST";

        JFrame frame = new JFrame("CardLayout Demo");

        //Create the "cards".
        JPanel card1 = new JPanel();
        card1.add(new JButton("Button 1 - Card 1"));
        card1.add(new JButton("Button 2 - Card 1"));
        card1.setBackground(new Color(255,0,0));

        JPanel card2 = new JPanel();
        card2.add(new JTextField("TextField on Card 2", 20));
        card2.setBackground(new Color(0,255,0));

        JPanel card3 = new JPanel();
        card3.add(new JLabel("Card 3"));
        card3.setBackground(new Color(0,0,255));

        //Create the panel that contains the "cards".
        cards = new JPanel(new CardLayout());
        cards.add(card1, card1Text);
        cards.add(card2, card2Text);
        cards.add(card3, card3Text);

        class ControlActionListenter implements ActionListener {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                CardLayout cl = (CardLayout) (cards.getLayout());
                String cmd = e.getActionCommand();
                if (cmd.equals(FIRST)) {
                    cl.first(cards);
                } else if (cmd.equals(NEXT)) {
                    cl.next(cards);
                } else if (cmd.equals(PREVIOUS)) {
                    cl.previous(cards);
                } else if (cmd.equals(LAST)) {
                    cl.last(cards);
                }
            }
        }
        ControlActionListenter cal = new ControlActionListenter();

        JButton btn1 = new JButton("First");
        btn1.setActionCommand(FIRST);
        btn1.addActionListener(cal);

        JButton btn2 = new JButton("Next");
        btn2.setActionCommand(NEXT);
        btn2.addActionListener(cal);

        JButton btn3 = new JButton("Previous");
        btn3.setActionCommand(PREVIOUS);
        btn3.addActionListener(cal);

        JButton btn4 = new JButton("Last");
        btn4.setActionCommand(LAST);
        btn4.addActionListener(cal);

        JPanel controlButtons = new JPanel();
        controlButtons.add(btn1);
        controlButtons.add(btn2);
        controlButtons.add(btn3);
        controlButtons.add(btn4);

        Container pane = frame.getContentPane();
        pane.add(cards, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        pane.add(controlButtons, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);

        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setSize(300, 200);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }
}Code language: JavaScript (javascript)