Removing `ItemListener` fires `ArrayIndexOutOfBounds`

Question

I am trying to remove an item listener from one of my JComboBoxes. Below is the code.

clientNameCombo.removeItemListener(clientNameCombo.getItemListeners()[clientNameCombo.getItemListeners().length-1]);

I dynamically add the ItemListener to the above combo box. However, sometimes when the above code is running, it gives the error:

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: -1
    at UI.MainUIHolder$CoreClientOtherPaymentTypeComboAction.itemStateChanged(MainUIHolder.java:10031)
    at javax.swing.JComboBox.fireItemStateChanged(JComboBox.java:1223)
    at javax.swing.JComboBox.selectedItemChanged(JComboBox.java:1280)
    at javax.swing.JComboBox.contentsChanged(JComboBox.java:1329)
    at javax.swing.AbstractListModel.fireContentsChanged(AbstractListModel.java:118)
    at javax.swing.DefaultComboBoxModel.setSelectedItem(DefaultComboBoxModel.java:93)
    at javax.swing.JComboBox.setSelectedItem(JComboBox.java:576)
    at javax.swing.JComboBox.setSelectedIndex(JComboBox.java:622)
    at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicComboPopup$Handler.mouseReleased(BasicComboPopup.java:834)
    at java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster.mouseReleased(AWTEventMulticaster.java:290)
    at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6525)
    at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3321)
    at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicComboPopup$1.processMouseEvent(BasicComboPopup.java:498)
    at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6290)
    at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2234)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4881)
    at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2292)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4703)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4898)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4533)
    at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4462)
    at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2278)
    at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2739)
    at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4703)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:746)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.access$400(EventQueue.java:97)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:697)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:691)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:75)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:86)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:719)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:717)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:75)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:716)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:201)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)

Maybe I have to check whether an ItemListener is attached to the JComboBox?

Answer 1

When clientNameCombo.getItemListeners().length == 0 (i.e. the array is empty), your code tries to access the -1 index, which is always wrong.

Answer 2

It will give this error if you don't have anything in the combo box, because then it says 0-1 which yields a -1. I would advice you to write a condition to check if the length is not 0.