java.

util
Interface Observer

public interface Observer

A class can implement the Observer interface when it wants to be informed of changes in
observable objects.

Since:
JDK1.0
See Also:
Observable

Method Summary
void update(Observable o, Object arg)
This method is called whenever the observed object is changed.

Method Detail
update
void update(Observable o,
Object arg)
This method is called whenever the observed object is changed. An application calls
an Observable object's notifyObservers method to have all the object's observers
notified of the change.
Parameters:
o - the observable object.
arg - an argument passed to the notifyObservers method.

java.util
Class Observable
java.lang.Object
java.util.Observable

public class Observable

This class represents an observable object, or "data" in the model-view paradigm. It can be
subclassed to represent an object that the application wants to have observed.

An observable object can have one or more observers. An observer may be any object that
implements interface Observer. After an observable instance changes, an application calling
the Observable's notifyObservers method causes all of its observers to be notified of the
change by a call to their update method.

The order in which notifications will be delivered is unspecified. The default implementation
provided in the Observable class will notify Observers in the order in which they registered
interest, but subclasses may change this order, use no guaranteed order, deliver notifications
on separate threads, or may guarantee that their subclass follows this order, as they choose.

Note that this notification mechanism is has nothing to do with threads and is completely
separate from the wait and notify mechanism of class Object.

When an observable object is newly created, its set of observers is empty. Two observers are
considered the same if and only if the equals method returns true for them.

Since:
JDK1.0
See Also:
notifyObservers(), notifyObservers(java.lang.Object), Observer,
Observer.update(java.util.Observable, java.lang.Object)

Constructor Summary
Observable()
Construct an Observable with zero Observers.

Method Summary
void addObserver(Observer o)
Adds an observer to the set of observers for this object, provided
that it is not the same as some observer already in the set.
protected void clearChanged()
Indicates that this object has no longer changed, or that it has
already notified all of its observers of its most recent change, so that the
hasChanged method will now return false.
int countObservers()
Returns the number of observers of this Observable object.
 void deleteObserver(Observer o)
Deletes an observer from the set of observers of this object.
void deleteObservers()
Clears the observer list so that this object no longer has any
observers.
boolean hasChanged()
Tests if this object has changed.
void notifyObservers()
If this object has changed, as indicated by the hasChanged method,
then notify all of its observers and then call the clearChanged method to
indicate that this object has no longer changed.
void notifyObservers(Object arg)
If this object has changed, as indicated by the hasChanged method,
then notify all of its observers and then call the clearChanged method to
indicate that this object has no longer changed.
protected void setChanged()
Marks this Observable object as having been changed; the
hasChanged method will now return true.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

Constructor Detail
Observable
public Observable()
Construct an Observable with zero Observers.
Method Detail
addObserver
public void addObserver(Observer o)
Adds an observer to the set of observers for this object, provided that it is not the same
as some observer already in the set. The order in which notifications will be delivered
to multiple observers is not specified. See the class comment.
Parameters:
o - an observer to be added.
Throws:
NullPointerException - if the parameter o is null.

deleteObserver
public void deleteObserver(Observer o)
 Deletes an observer from the set of observers of this object. Passing null to this
method will have no effect.
Parameters:
o - the observer to be deleted.

notifyObservers
public void notifyObservers()
If this object has changed, as indicated by the hasChanged method, then notify all of
its observers and then call the clearChanged method to indicate that this object has no
longer changed.

Each observer has its update method called with two arguments: this observable
object and null. In other words, this method is equivalent to:

notifyObservers(null)
See Also:
clearChanged(), hasChanged(), Observer.update(java.util.Observable,
java.lang.Object)

notifyObservers
public void notifyObservers(Object arg)
If this object has changed, as indicated by the hasChanged method, then notify all of
its observers and then call the clearChanged method to indicate that this object has no
longer changed.

Each observer has its update method called with two arguments: this observable
object and the arg argument.

Parameters:
arg - any object.
See Also:
clearChanged(), hasChanged(), Observer.update(java.util.Observable,
java.lang.Object)

deleteObservers
public void deleteObservers()
Clears the observer list so that this object no longer has any observers.

setChanged
protected void setChanged()
Marks this Observable object as having been changed; the hasChanged method will
now return true.
clearChanged
protected void clearChanged()
Indicates that this object has no longer changed, or that it has already notified all of its
observers of its most recent change, so that the hasChanged method will now return
false. This method is called automatically by the notifyObservers methods.
See Also:
notifyObservers(), notifyObservers(java.lang.Object)

hasChanged
public boolean hasChanged()
Tests if this object has changed.
Returns:
true if and only if the setChanged method has been called more recently than the
clearChanged method on this object; false otherwise.
See Also:
clearChanged(), setChanged()

countObservers
public int countObservers()
Returns the number of observers of this Observable object.
Returns:
the number of observers of this object.