How to add a panel to a frame

• A JFrame object contains several panes.
• To add components to a frame, you add them to the content pane of the frame.
• A panel is a component that's used as a container for other components.
• The normal way to build a Swing user interface is to create a panel, add components such as labels, text boxes, and buttons to the panel, then add the panel to the content pane.

Method needed to add components to the content pane with Java 5

A JFrame constructor that adds a panel to the content pane with Java 5

class FutureValueFrame()
{
    setTitle("Future Value Calculator");
    setSize(267, 200);
    centerWindow(this);
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    JPanel panel = new JPanel();
    this.add(panel);
}

Methods needed to add components to the content pane prior to Java 5

Code for adding a panel to the content pane prior to Java 5

Container contentPane = this.getContentPane();
contentPane.add(panel);