Hide/Show Password in a JTextFIeld (Java Swing)

Question

So I've been working on a Password Strength Checker and the way it works is that the user enters some random text into a textfield and then instantaneous visual feedback (breakdown of points) is displayed. I've also added a checkbox, which on being selected, should hide the password i.e. replace all the chars with asterisks, while preserving the actual text input by the user. A document listener is being used to keep track of changes inside the textfield. (each char on entry gets analyzed and then scored)

So, my question is, how exactly do I mask the user input with asterisks preserving its original value?

Here's what the GUI looks like:

http://speedcap.net/sharing/screen.php?id=files/51/2f/512f9abb3f92a25add7c593e9d80e9e4.png

Answer 1

How exactly do I mask the user input with asterisks preserving its original value?

Use the JPasswordField which has nice function jPasswordField.getPassword(); to get the password as char[] to work with.

• Use jPasswordField1.setEchoChar('*') to mask the password characters with *.
• If you wish to see the value you are inserting use jPasswordField1.setEchoChar((char)0); Setting a value of 0 indicates that you wish to see the text as it is typed, similar to the behavior of a standard JTextField.

Tutorial and Reference:

1. How to use Password Fields
2. setEchoChar(char)