How do I use the Button Group Swing control in Java?

Question

How do I add radio buttons to a button group using NetBeans?

Once I add them, how do I get selected radio button from the button group?

Answer 1

1. Drag a ButtonGroup from the palette and drop it on your GUI. It will show up under Other Components in the Inspector panel.
2. Right-click on it and Change variable name to something meaningful.
3. Now select a radio button in your GUI.
4. In the Properties panel look for the buttonGroup property.
5. Click the combo box next to it and select your button group.

Answer 2

I highly recommend reading this excellent tutorial. Here's an excerpt of code from the article that satisfies your question on how to create and add buttons to a ButtonGroup:

JRadioButton birdButton = new JRadioButton(birdString);
birdButton.setSelected(true);

JRadioButton catButton = new JRadioButton(catString);

   //Group the radio buttons.
ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
group.add(birdButton);
group.add(catButton);

As far as getting which item is selected, you basically need to iterate through the items in the group calling isSelected.