How to disable a MenuItem in Java?

To disable a MenuItem, use the setEnabled() method and set it to FALSE. Let’s say we have the following MenuBar −

JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();

Now, create a Menu −

JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File"); fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F); menuBar.add(fileMenu);

We will now create two MenuItems inside the above Menu −

JMenuItem menuItem1 = new JMenuItem("New", KeyEvent.VK_N); fileMenu.add(menuItem1); JMenuItem menuItem2 = new JMenuItem("Open File", KeyEvent.VK_O); fileMenu.add(menuItem2);

Now, let us disable the 2nd MenuItem −

menuItem2.setEnabled(false);

The following is an example to disable a MenuItem in Java −

Example

package my; import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.event.KeyEvent; import javax.swing.JFrame; import javax.swing.JMenu; import javax.swing.JMenuBar; import javax.swing.JMenuItem; import javax.swing.UIManager; public class SwingDemo {    public static void main(final String args[]) {       JFrame frame = new JFrame("MenuBar Demo");       frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);       JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();       UIManager.put("MenuBar.background", Color.ORANGE);       JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");       fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);       menuBar.add(fileMenu);       JMenuItem menuItem1 = new JMenuItem("New", KeyEvent.VK_N);       fileMenu.add(menuItem1);       JMenuItem menuItem2 = new JMenuItem("Open File", KeyEvent.VK_O);       fileMenu.add(menuItem2);       menuItem2.setEnabled(false);       JMenu editMenu = new JMenu("Edit");       editMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_E);       menuBar.add(editMenu);       JMenuItem menuItem3 = new JMenuItem("Cut", KeyEvent.VK_C);       editMenu.add(menuItem3);       JMenu searchMenu = new JMenu("Search");       searchMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_S);       menuBar.add(searchMenu);       JMenu projectMenu = new JMenu("Project");       projectMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_P);       menuBar.add(projectMenu);       JMenu runMenu = new JMenu("Run");       runMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_R);       menuBar.add(runMenu);       menuBar.revalidate();       frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);       frame.setSize(550, 350);       frame.setVisible(true);    } }

The output is as follows. Here, we have disabled the “Open File” MenuItem −