SwingUtilities.invokeLater: When and Why Should You Use It?

SwingUtilities.invokeLater: Executing Code on the Event Dispatch Thread

SwingUtilities.invokeLater is a method in Java's Swing library that schedules a Runnable to be executed on the next available slot in the event dispatching thread.

How does invokeLater work?

When you call SwingUtilities.invokeLater, you pass it a Runnable object. This object contains the code you want to execute on the event dispatching thread. The event dispatching thread is the thread that handles all GUI events, such as button clicks and mouse movements.

Why use invokeLater?

You should use invokeLater when you need to make changes to the GUI from a different thread. For example, if you have a long-running task that you want to perform in a background thread, you should use invokeLater to update the GUI when the task is complete.

What's the difference between invokeLater and simply calling the code on the event dispatching thread?

If you simply call the code on the event dispatching thread, it will be executed immediately. This can cause problems if the event dispatching thread is currently busy handling other events. By using invokeLater, you can schedule the code to be executed later, when the event dispatching thread has time to handle it.

Example usage

Here is an example of how to use SwingUtilities.invokeLater:

<code class="java">import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class Example {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> {
            JButton button = new JButton("Click me!");
        });
    }
}</code>

In this example, we use invokeLater to create a new button and add it to the GUI. Because we use invokeLater, the button will be created and added to the GUI on the event dispatching thread, which ensures that the GUI is updated correctly.

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