Pros and cons of using ActionListener vs. MouseListener for capturing clicks on a JButton

Question

I have a JButton, and would like to capture mouse clicks on it. What are the practical and philosophical differences between using an ActionListener vs. using a MouseListener on the JButton ?

Answer 1

An ActionListener is used to handle the logical click of a button. A click happens

• when the mouse is pressed then released on a button,
• or when the keyboard shortcut of that button is used,
• or when the button has the focus and the space bar is pressed,
• or when the button is the default button and Enter is pressed,
• or when the button's click() method is called programmatically

A MouseListener only handles low-level mouse events.

Answer 2

If you just want to know that the button has been pressed use ActionListener. If your checks involve deeper analysis like mouse state (mouse entered the button, exited) etc, use MouseListener