invalidate : Java Glossary

invalidate

To mark a Component or Container (and its containing parents, but not the contained children) as needing to be re-laid out soon usually because the Component (or one of its children) has resized, become visible or become invisible. Sometimes application code directly calls invalidate(). More often invalidate() gets called as a side effect of adding or deleting a Component, making a Component visible or invisible (The AWT is smart enough not to invalidate if you setVisible( true ) when the Component is already visible), changing the size or location of a Component with setSize(), setLocation() or setBounds(). If the value of a Component changes, but not the size or position of where it is displayed on the screen, there is no need to invalidate, just repaint that Component. invalidate() is also called as the first step in processing a COMPONENT_RESIZED event. Invoking invalidate by itself will not schedule a validate or repaint.

With invalidate, child Components won’t be relaid out, but parents will.

Learning More

Sun’s Javadoc on invalidate package : available:

on the web at java.sun.com
in the current JDK 1.6.0_17 or in the old JDK 1.5.0_22 on your local Windows J: drive.

event
layout
paint
repaint
revalidate
setVisible
update
validate

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