Working with JFileChooser - getting access to the selected file

Question

havn't coded in a while so think I'm a bit rusty. I'm trying to build an app that lets a user select a file as input. The following bit of code is what I have at the moment:

JButton btnFile = new JButton("Select Excel File");
btnFile.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
    //Handle open button action.
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        final JFileChooser fc = new JFileChooser(); 
        int returnVal = fc.showOpenDialog(frmRenamePdfs);
        if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
            File file = fc.getSelectedFile();
            //This is where a real application would open the file.
            System.out.println("File: " + file.getName() + ".");    
        } else {
            System.out.println("Open command cancelled by user.");
        }
        System.out.println(returnVal);
    }
});

I can't seem to figure out how to get access to "file" from outside of the Listener, i.e. in the function where the rests of the GUI is created. I have a blank text label adjacent to the button that launches the file chooser, so what I want to do is store the file, and also set the text of the text label to the name of the file.

Solution

How about defining your File file variable at the class level instead of inside the anon inner class?

public class SwingSandbox {

  private File file;

  public SwingSandbox() {
    final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Hello");

    JButton btnFile = new JButton("Select Excel File");
    btnFile.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
        //Handle open button action.
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            final JFileChooser fc = new JFileChooser(); 
            int returnVal = fc.showOpenDialog(frame);
            if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
                file = fc.getSelectedFile();
                //This is where a real application would open the file.
                System.out.println("File: " + file.getName() + ".");    
            } else {
                System.out.println("Open command cancelled by user.");
            }
            System.out.println(returnVal);
        }
    });

    frame.getContentPane().add(btnFile);
    frame.setSize(100, 100);
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.setVisible(true);
  }


  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    new SwingSandbox();
  }

}