The Stubborn JComboBox

Question

I have a JComboBox shown in the code below. When the program starts its actionPerformed event fires up immediately causing some null pointer exceptions so I want to start with none of the elements selected. However, for some reason it does not work (it always start with displaying "USD/TRY" whatever I do). Anyone has any idea ?

JComboBox comboBox = new JComboBox(new String[]{"USD/TRY", "EUR/TRY", "GBP/TRY"});

comboBox.setSelectedIndex(-1); // doesnt change anything
comboBox.setSelectedIndex(2); // doesnt change anything     
comboBox.setSelectedItem(null); // doesnt change anything

UPDATE: Building the combo box like below doesnt change anything either

JComboBox comboBox = new JComboBox(); 

comboBox.addItem("USD/TRY"); 
comboBox.addItem("EUR/TRY"); 
comboBox.addItem("GBP/TRY"); 

Here is the SSCCE:

public class MainFrame {

    private final JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();
    private IExchangeSource s;

    public MainFrame(final IExchangeSource s) {
        //build gui
        final JComboBox comboBox = new JComboBox();

        comboBox.addItem("USD/TRY");
        comboBox.addItem("EUR/TRY");
        comboBox.addItem("GBP/TRY");

        comboBox.setSelectedIndex(-1); // doesnt change anything
        //comboBox.setSelectedIndex(2); // doesnt change anything


        JFrame f = new JFrame("Currency Converter");
        JPanel p = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        textArea.setName("textarea");
        textArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        textArea.setLineWrap(true);
        this.s = s;

        comboBox.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                String exchange = (String) comboBox.getSelectedItem();

                s.getData(exchange);
            }
        });

        p.add(comboBox, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        p.add(textArea, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        f.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 300));
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.pack();
        f.add(p);
        comboBox.setSelectedIndex(0);
        f.setVisible(true);
    }
}

Answer 1

Your (incomplete) example invokes

comboBox.setSelectedIndex(0);

right before becoming visible, canceling any previous setting. Set the desired initial index before adding the listener, and don't neglect to start on the EDT, as shown in the sscce below.

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;

public class MainFrame {

    private final JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();


    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                new MainFrame();
            }
        });
    }
    public MainFrame() {
        //build gui
        final JComboBox comboBox = new JComboBox();

        comboBox.addItem("USD/TRY");
        comboBox.addItem("EUR/TRY");
        comboBox.addItem("GBP/TRY");

        JFrame f = new JFrame("Currency Converter");
        JPanel p = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        textArea.setName("textarea");
        textArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        textArea.setLineWrap(true);

        comboBox.setSelectedIndex(-1);
        comboBox.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                System.out.println(comboBox.getSelectedItem() + ": " + e);
            }
        });

        p.add(comboBox, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        p.add(textArea, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.pack();
        f.setSize(new Dimension(300, 300));
        f.add(p);
        f.setVisible(true);
    }
}