• Creating a ChoiceBox
• Adding Choices to a ChoiceBox
• Adding a ChoiceBox to the Scene Graph
• Reading the Selected Value
• Listening for Selection

The JavaFX ChoiceBox control enables users to choose an option from a predefined list of choices. The JavaFX ChoiceBox control is represented by the class javafx.scene.control.ChoiceBox . This JavaFX ChoiceBox tutorial will explain how to use the ChoiceBox class.

Creating a ChoiceBox

You create a ChoiceBox simply by creating a new instance of the ChoiceBox class. Here is a JavaFX ChoiceBox instantiation example:

ChoiceBox choiceBox = new ChoiceBox();

Adding Choices to a ChoiceBox

You can add choices to a ChoiceBox by obtaining its item collection and add items to it. Here is an example that adds choices to a JavaFX ChoiceBox :

choiceBox.getItems().add("Choice 1");
choiceBox.getItems().add("Choice 2");
choiceBox.getItems().add("Choice 3");

Adding a ChoiceBox to the Scene Graph

To make a ChoiceBox visible you must add it to the scene graph. This means that you must add the ChoiceBox to a Scene object or to some layout component which is then attached to the Scene object.

Here is an example showing how to add a JavaFX ChoiceBox to the scene graph:

package com.jenkov.javafx.controls;

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.ChoiceBox;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class ChoiceBoxExperiments extends Application  {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {
        primaryStage.setTitle("ChoiceBox Experiment 1");

        ChoiceBox choiceBox = new ChoiceBox();

        choiceBox.getItems().add("Choice 1");
        choiceBox.getItems().add("Choice 2");
        choiceBox.getItems().add("Choice 3");

        HBox hbox = new HBox(choiceBox);

        Scene scene = new Scene(hbox, 200, 100);
        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.show();

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Application.launch(args);
    }
}

The application resulting from running this example would look similar to this:

Reading the Selected Value

You can read the selected value of a ChoiceBox via its getValue() method. If no choice is selected, the getValue() method returns null. Here is an example of calling getValue():

String value = (String) choiceBox.getValue();

Listening for Selection

It is possible to listen for selection changes in a JavaFX ChoiceBox by setting an action listener on the ChoiceBox via its setOnAction() method. Here is an example of setting an action listener on a ChoiceBox which reads what value was selected in the ChoiceBox:

ChoiceBox choiceBox = new ChoiceBox();

choiceBox.getItems().add("Choice 1");
choiceBox.getItems().add("Choice 2");
choiceBox.getItems().add("Choice 3");

choiceBox.setOnAction((event) -> {
    int selectedIndex = choiceBox.getSelectionModel().getSelectedIndex();
    Object selectedItem = choiceBox.getSelectionModel().getSelectedItem();

    System.out.println("Selection made: [" + selectedIndex + "] " + selectedItem);
    System.out.println("   ChoiceBox.getValue(): " + choiceBox.getValue());
});