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This article will show you how to close a window in Java. Closing a window is much easier using Swing's JFrame, but it's also doable using AWT's Frame.
Steps
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1Obtain an instance of aJFrame, or create a new one. -
2Set default close operation. Default close operation is set using the setter method inside theJFrameclasssetDefaultCloseOperationthat determines what happens when the close button is clicked and takes the following parameters:-
WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE- Closes the frame and terminates the execution of the program. -
WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE- Closes the frame and does not necessarily terminate the execution of the program. -
WindowConstants.HIDE_ON_CLOSE- Makes the frame appear like it closed by setting its visibility property to false. The difference betweenHIDE_ON_CLOSEandDISPOSE_ON_CLOSEis that the latter releases all of the resources used by the frame and its components. -
WindowConstants.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE- Does nothing when the close button is pressed. Useful if you wish to, for example, display a confirmation dialog before the window is closed. You can do that by adding aWindowListenerto the frame and overridingwindowClosingmethod. Example of the custom close operation:frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE); frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { @Override public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) { // Ask for confirmation before terminating the program. int option = JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog( frame, "Are you sure you want to close the application?", "Close Confirmation", JOptionPane.YES_NO_OPTION, JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE); if (option == JOptionPane.YES_OPTION) { System.exit(0); } } });
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1Obtain an instance of aFrame, or create a new one. -
2Add window listener. CalladdWindowListenermethod on the instance. The required argument isWindowListener. You can either implement every method of theWindowListenerinterface or override only the methods you need fromWindowAdapterclass. -
3Handle window closing event. ImplementwindowClosingmethod fromWindowListenerinterface or override it fromWindowAdapterclass. There are two ways of closing a window:- Dispose the window after the close button is clicked:
- Call
disposemethod insidewindowClosingmethod.
frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { @Override public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) { // Dispose the window after the close button is clicked. dispose(); } });
- Call
- Terminate the program after the close button is clicked:
- Call
System.exitmethod insidewindowClosingmethod.
frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { @Override public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) { // Terminate the program after the close button is clicked. System.exit(0); } });
- Call
- Dispose the window after the close button is clicked:
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Tips
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Swing is preferred over AWT since the latter is really outdated.Thanks
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Using
WindowAdapteryou don't have to implement each and every methodWindowListenercontract tells us to, but only the ones we need.Thanks
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