QLabel does not display in QWidget - qt

Question

I have the following hierarchy in my Qt Application:
QMainWindow > QWidget (centralWidget) > QWidget (subclassed) > QLabel
Initialization code in my QMainWindow code:
centralWidget = new QWidget();
centralWidget->setGeometry(0,0,width,height);
chatWidget=new ChatWidget(this); // the subclassed QWidget
setCentralWidget(centralWidget);
In my subclassed QWidget initialization (which happens at the same time than the Qt App initialization) I have the following code:
ChatWidget::ChatWidget(QWidget *parent):QWidget(parent)
{
QLabel *lbl;
lbl=new QLabel(this);
lbl->setText("Hello World 1"); <-- Is properly Display
}
void ChatWidget::displayChatAfterButtonPressed()
{
QLabel *lbl;
lbl=new QLabel(this);
lbl->setText("Hello World 2"); <-- Does NOT appear
}
When the QLabel is added from the class initialization then the message is well displayed in the widget.
However when I launch the same code after a button pressed (via a function in the same QWidget subclass), then the text does not appear on screen.
I don't want to use layouts as I need to exactly position my labels.
Tried to repaint, but didn't help neither.
How can I properly and dynamically display a label after the initialization is done ?

Answer 1

Widgets when they are visible for the first time call to be visible to their children, but since you are creating it afterwards they probably are not calling that method, a possible solution is to call the show method.
void ChatWidget::displayChatAfterButtonPressed()
{
QLabel *lbl;
lbl=new QLabel(this);
lbl->setText("Hello World 2");
lbl->show();
}
comment: it seems strange to me that the QMainWindow you set a central widget and then create the chatWidget as a parent to the QMainWindow, it is generally not recommended to add children to the QMainWindow because it has a given structure, what should be done is to place it inside the centralwidget.

Answer 2

We need to show the label created by button click, cause centralwidget was already painted.
Here is a working example, I added this as answer also I noticed better adding chatWidget as child to centralWidget where in your original code its added to the UI .. this is your choice.
Mainwindow:
MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
QMainWindow(parent),
ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
//
ui->setupUi(this);
centralWidget = new QWidget();
centralWidget->setGeometry(width,height);
chatWidget=new ChatWidget(centralWidget); // the subclassed QWidget
setCentralWidget(centralWidget);
// added testing
QPushButton *btn = new QPushButton("MyButton",centralWidget);
btn->setGeometry(100,100,100,100);
btn->setMaximumSize(100,100);
connect(btn,&QPushButton::clicked, chatWidget, &ChatWidget::displayChatAfterButtonPressed);
}
and chatWidget:
ChatWidget::ChatWidget(QWidget *parent):QWidget(parent)
{
QLabel *lbl;
lbl=new QLabel(this);
lbl->setText("Hello World 1");
}
void ChatWidget::displayChatAfterButtonPressed()
{
QLabel *lbl;
lbl=new QLabel(this);
lbl->setText("Hello World 2");
lbl->show();
}