Can't understand Java Swing Timers. How do I make a 1 time delay?

Question

I need a one-time pause in this program for what I'm trying to do. I display some text in a Java Swing JFrame, repaint shows it, I wait 1.5 sec, then I change the text.

Basically, I started with this:

statusLabel.setText(s);    
appFrame.repaint();
Thread.sleep(1500);
statusLabel.setText(y);
appFrame.repaint();

But this wasn't working. Thread.sleep() would invoke before repaint had finished, meaning s would never be shown. I read a lot of places that you're not supposed to use Thread.sleep() in swing applications because it pauses all threads, even the threads trying to repaint, and that to pause something triggered by actionPerformed() you need to use a Java Swing Timer.

Which is all well and fine, except I can't find a single place that offers a decent explanation on how they work. Since, as far as I can tell, timers are specifically used for repeating events on a timer. I just want a 1.5 second delay between 2 repaints.

I tried doing this...

statusLabel.setText(s);    
appFrame.repaint();

Timer timer = new Timer(1500, new ActionListener()
{
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)
    {

    }
});

timer.setInitialDelay(1500);
timer.setRepeats(false);
timer.start();

statusLabel.setText(y);
appFrame.repaint();

...adding a timer with a 1.5 sec initial delay, no repeating, and no body to its actionPerformed event, so that it literally does nothing but wait that 1.5 sec, but it didn't work.

Answer 1

As coded in your example, it looks like the timer would "work", it just doesn't do anything because the actionPerformed method is empty. You might be thinking that timer.start() blocks and waits for the timer to trigger, but it fact it returns immediately. The way timers work is that the timer's actionPerformed method will be invoked from the UI thread when it is supposed to be. Placing code inside the actionPerformed method of a timer is a good way to update the UI state periodically.