using input in JTextField in Color color variable

[cor.vandijk.779]

Theinput in a JTextField must be used in the variable Color color.
input = YELLOW must change variable color in Color.YELLOW.
My attempt does not work:

[JamesCherrill]

If you don't show us your code we cannot tell you what's wrong with it.

[cor.vandijk.779]

// to solve how to use input tekst in variable kleur

    public Color getInvoer()
        {
            System.out.println(kleurTekstVeld); 
            String tekst = kleurTekstVeld.getText();
            System.out.println(tekst);
            kleur = Color.tekst;
            System.out.println(kleur);
            return kleur;
        }

[NormR1]

You will need to convert the String obtained from the textfield to a Color object.
One way would be to use a chain of if/else if statements to compare the String and set the Color, or switch with 1.7,
another would be to use a Map<String, Color> that has been loaded with colors and their names as strings

[JamesCherrill]

When you seeColor.xxx the xxx is the name of a public variable in the Color class. You can't just use a String variable as the name like that.
There are (at least) two ways to do what you want:
1. Create a Map<String, Color> that has the string as a key and the actual Color as the value ( map.add("yellow", Color.yellow); etc), the use that to look up the Color from the user's input string. See http://www.daniweb.com/software-development/java/threads/341974/using-a-string-to-set-a-color
2. Use Reflection to access the Color variable by name using the input String in Class's getField method - but this would count as "advanced" Java in most books.

[cor.vandijk.779]

JamesCherrill, NormR1,
Thanks for your answers. I'll try it tomorrow and let you know.

[cor.vandijk.779]

The proposed solution using HashMap was new to me. The change from text input to color can also be done with the switch statement of which I have an explanation in dutch. I made following code and it works. If it is nice code?

class kleurTekstVeldHandler implements ActionListener
    {
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
    {
        input = kleurTekstVeld.getText();
        kleurTekstVeld.setText(input);
        color =(Color) getInput();
        //copied from book page 45 book 3 OU
        Container inhoud = getContentPane();
        for(Component c: inhoud.getComponents()){
            if( c instanceof JButton){
                c.setBackground(color);
            }
        }   
        }
        }

// solved with switch instruction input in variable color
public Color getInput(){
    String input = kleurTekstVeld.getText();
    giveColor(input);
    return color;
    }

public Color giveColor(String input){
switch (input){
case "red":
return color = Color.red;
case "green":
return color = Color.green;
default:
return color = Color.black;
}
}

[JamesCherrill]

The switch is a perfectly reasonable solution - a little bit longer than the Map, but works just as well for a relatively small and fixed set of colors.