paintComponent method is not displaying anything on the panel

Question

I have been trying to debug this for hours. The program is supposed to be a grapher that graphs coordinates, but i cannot get anything to display not even a random line, but if i put a print statement there it works. It is a problem with the paintComponent Method. When I out print statement before g.drawLine then it prints, but it doesn't draw any lines even if i put a random line with coordinates (1,3), (2,4).

import java.awt.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public abstract class XYGrapher
{
    abstract public Coordinate xyStart();
    abstract public double xRange();
    abstract public double yRange();
    abstract public Coordinate getPoint(int pointNum);
    public class Paint extends JPanel
    {
        public void paintGraph(Graphics g, int xPixel1, int yPixel1, int xPixel2, int yPixel2) 
        {
            super.paintComponent(g);
            g.setColor(Color.black);
            g.drawLine(xPixel1, yPixel1, xPixel2, yPixel2);
        }
        public void paintXAxis(Graphics g, int xPixel, int pixelsWide, int pixelsHigh) 
        {
            super.paintComponent(g);
            g.setColor(Color.green);
            g.drawLine(xPixel, 0, xPixel, pixelsHigh);
        }
        public void paintYAxis(Graphics g, int yPixel, int pixelsWide, int pixelsHigh)
        {
            super.paintComponent(g);
            g.setColor(Color.green);
            g.drawLine(0, yPixel, pixelsWide, yPixel);
        }
    }
    public void drawGraph(int xPixelStart, int yPixelStart, int pixelsWide, int pixelsHigh)
    {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        Paint panel = new Paint();
        panel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(pixelsWide, pixelsHigh));
        panel.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(pixelsWide, pixelsHigh));
        panel.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(pixelsWide, pixelsHigh));
        frame.setLocation(frame.getToolkit().getScreenSize().width / 2 - pixelsWide / 2, frame.getToolkit().getScreenSize().height / 2 - pixelsHigh / 2);

        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setResizable(false);
        frame.add(panel);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);

        double xRange = xRange();
        double yRange = yRange();
        Coordinate xyStart = xyStart();

        int xPixel = xPixelStart - (int) (xyStart.getX() * (pixelsWide / xRange));
        int yPixel = yPixelStart + (int) ((xyStart.getY() + yRange) * (pixelsHigh / yRange));

        System.out.println(xPixel + " " + yPixel);

        if(yPixel > 0 && (yPixel < pixelsHigh))
        {
            System.out.println("y");
            panel.paintYAxis(panel.getGraphics(), yPixel, pixelsWide, pixelsHigh);
        }
        if(xPixel > 0 && (xPixel < pixelsHigh))
        {
            System.out.println("x");
            panel.paintXAxis(panel.getGraphics(), xPixel, pixelsWide, pixelsHigh);
        }

        for(int i = 0; i>=0; i++)
        {
            Coordinate point1 = getPoint(i);
            Coordinate point2 = getPoint(i+1);
            if(point2 == null)
            {
                break;
            }
            else
            {
                if(point1.drawFrom() && point2.drawTo())
                {
                    int xPixel1 = (int) (xPixelStart + (point1.getX() - xyStart.getX()) * (pixelsWide / xRange));
                    int yPixel1 = (int) (yPixelStart + (xyStart.getY() + yRange-point1.getY()) * (pixelsHigh / yRange));
                    int xPixel2 = (int) (xPixelStart + (point2.getX() - xyStart.getX()) * (pixelsWide / xRange));
                    int yPixel2 = (int) (yPixelStart + (xyStart.getY() + yRange - point2.getY()) * (pixelsHigh / yRange));

                    panel.paintGraph(panel.getGraphics(), xPixel1, yPixel1, xPixel2, yPixel2);
                }
            }
        }
        frame.pack();
    }
}

This is how i am testing it is supposed to be a square, but nothing shows up.

public class GrapherTester extends XYGrapher
{
    public Coordinate xyStart()
    {
        return new Coordinate(-2,2);
    }
    public double xRange()
    {
        return 4;
    }
    public double yRange()
    {
        return 4;
    }
    public Coordinate getPoint(int pointNum)
    {
        switch(pointNum)
        {
            case 0: return new Coordinate(-1,-1);
            case 1: return new Coordinate(1,-1);
            case 2: return new Coordinate(1,1);
            case 3: return new Coordinate(-1,1);
            case 4: return new Coordinate(-1,-1); 
        }
        return null;
    }
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        new GrapherTester().drawGraph(100, 100, 500, 500);
    }
}

Coordinate class so if any of you want to run and try it out. That is all you would need.

public class Coordinate
{
    float x;
    float y;
    boolean drawTo;
    boolean drawFrom;
    Coordinate(double x, double y) 
    {
        this.x = (float) x;
        this.y = (float) y;
        drawFrom = true;
        drawTo = true;
    }
    Coordinate(double x, double y, boolean drawFrom, boolean drawTo) 
    {
        this.x = (float) x;
        this.y = (float) y;
        this.drawFrom = drawFrom;
        this.drawTo = drawTo;
    }
    public double getX()
    {
        return x;
    }
    public double getY()
    {
        return y;
    }
    public boolean drawTo()
    {
        return drawTo;
    }
    public boolean drawFrom()
    {
        return drawFrom;
    }
}

Answer 1

The methods paintGraph(...), paintXAxis(...) and paintYAxis(...) should not invoke paintComponent().

Instead the code should be the other way around. That is you should override the paintComponent() method which in turn will invoke those 3 methods. Also the parameters you pass to each of the methods should be properties of the Paint class. So you may also need to add some setter method to assign values to all the properties.

Also, don't forget to override the getPreferredSize() method of the Paint class so the component can be layed out properly by layout managers.

I suggest you start by reading the section from the Swing tutorial on Custom Painting for a more detailed explanation and working examples.

Answer 2

The class does not override paintComponent(Graphics).

---

There are some other odd aspects to the code shown, starting with..

frame.setLocation(frame.getToolkit().getScreenSize().width / 2 - pixelsWide / 2, frame.getToolkit().getScreenSize().height / 2 - pixelsHigh / 2);

What does that translate to in any human language, the 'center of the screen'? If so, that can be accomplished simpler using:

frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);

But better still, we now have..

frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);

See here for a quick example.