Can't a Swing component be added to multiple containers?

Question

I'm trying (testing something else) to add one JButton reference into two JPanels to test it, and it disappears from the first panel it was added to!

So, can't a Swing component be added to multiple containers?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

From: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/toplevel.html:

Each GUI component can be contained only once. If a component is already in a container and you try to add it to another container, the component will be removed from the first container and then added to the second.

Answer 2

As you've discovered, you can't share components. However there are other approaches you can use.

In the case of a JButtons you can share an Action:

JButton button1 = new JButton( someAction ); JButton button2 = new JButton( someAction );

Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Actions for more information.

In other cases you might want to share the model:

DefaultTableModel model = new DefaultTableModel( ... ); JTable table1 = new JTable( model ); JTable table2 = new JTable( model ); 

The solution depends on your requirement.