Tiled image in java?

[calvintmoss]

So I am trying to make a tile map editor/reader to create and interact with maps like this , so essnetially I am wondering what the best way to go about this would be. I have not done anyhting graphical in programming in a long time and yeah, I was thinking an arary of jlabels on a jframe? Anyone have any suggestions / ideas? thanks

[ObSys]

    I'd recommend using an array to create a grid on the screen. Then you can assign each cell a value. This value determines which bitmap is displayed in the cell.

    e.g. If we assign the value 1 to door.jpg and then say
                (3,2) = 1 
         The system then paints the door.jpg image in the cell (3,2).

    Hope this Helps

[calvintmoss]

Thanks, I think I could do this, do you have any recomondations on how to actaully make the grid or how to display this? Im more confused on the actual code for displaying, say a grid like you said, I know how to make an array but how could i make a visual array that is say 32x32? Thanks agian

[ObSys]

Ok so first we need to create a 2 dimensional array. To paint the grid, we just need to create a simple loop that loops through each item in the array. As far as referencing the grid goes, the easiest way is to create a switch for grid(x,y) and find the value of each cell.

    int grid[][] = new int[32][32]; //this creates our 32*32 grid

    public void paintComponent(Graphics g){

        grid[2][2]=1; //this is how values are assigned to each cell
        grid[2][3]=2;

        //here we create 2 loops x and y to go through each item in the grid array

        for(int x=0;x<32;x++){

            for(int y=0; y<10; y++){

                //Switch to determine Cell value
                //and therefore cell colour
                switch (grid[x][y]){

                    //default
                    case(0):
                        g.setColor(Color.GREEN);
                        break;

                        //Water
                    case(1):
                        g.setColor(Color.BLUE);
                        break;

                        //dirt
                        case(2):
                            g.setColor(Color.DARK_GRAY);
                            break;

                } 

                //draw the filled rectangle in specified color
                g.fillRect(x*32,y*32,32,32);

                //draw borders
                g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
                g.drawRect(x*32,y*32,32,32);


            }
        }
        repaint();
    }