JavaFX ComboBox store selected item in csv file - javafx

Question

so I am using JavFX to create a form that stores all the answers in a csv file. I need to create a dropdown menu that allows the users to select an option, which is then recorded in the csv file. I have tried a lot of different options, however I think comboBox is the best option.
I have no problem creating the ComboBox, I only run into problems when it comes to the method to get the value of the box.
Can someone help me find a solution, or suggest what another JavaFX menu I can use?
This is the code I have right now:
public VBox setFamiliar(){
Button button = new Button();
button.setOnAction(e -> toString());
familiarComboBox = new ComboBox<>();
familiarVBox = new VBox();
familiarComboBox.getItems().addAll("Irmão", "Irmã", "Avó", "Avô", "Tio", "Tia", "Pai", "Mãe");
familiarVBox.getChildren().add(familiarComboBox);
familiarVBox.getChildren().add(button);
return familiarVBox;
}
Here I set the ComboBox, this part doesnt seem to have a problem because it appears and I can select an item. I created a separate void toString() method that sets the value of a variable to the current selected item
public void toString(ActionEvent e){
familiar = familiarComboBox.getSelectionModel().getSelectedItem().toString();
}
The problem is then in the get method to get the value that was selected.
public String getIrmao(){
if(familiar.equals("Irmão")){
return "2";
}
return "0";
I also tried to do familiarComboBox.getSelectionModel().getSelectedItem().equals(), and other variations of this combination.

Answer 1

If I understand your requirement -- that when a user makes a choice from the "Familiar" combo box, a value should be written immediately to a CSV file -- you don't need the getIrmao() method. You simply write the value out in the action which you are calling toString(...) (not a good choice of names), but which we will rename to handleFamiliarChange(...).
Now the method becomes
public void handleFamiliarChange(ActionEvent e){
final String familiar =
familiarComboBox.getSelectionModel().getSelectedItem().toString();
FileUtils.writeToCsvFile(familiar.equals("Irmão") ? 2 : 0);
}
where FileUtils.writeToCsvFile(...) is a method that does the file writing. Note that FileUtils is a class you have created to separate out file handling concerns -- your JavaFX view class should only concern itself with views.