Mouse events let you track when a mouse is pressed, released, clicked, moved, dragged, when it enters a component, when it exits and when a mouse wheel is moved.

Extend this class to create a MouseEvent (including drag and motion events) or/and MouseWheelEvent listener and override the methods for the events of interest. (If you implement the MouseListener, MouseMotionListener interface, you have to define all of the methods in it. This abstract class defines null methods for them all, so you can only have to define methods for events you care about.)

Create a listener object using the extended class and then register it with a component using the component's addMouseListener addMouseMotionListener, addMouseWheelListener methods. The relevant method in the listener object is invoked and the MouseEvent or MouseWheelEvent is passed to it in following cases:

• when a mouse button is pressed, released, or clicked (pressed and released)
• when the mouse cursor enters or exits the component
• when the mouse wheel rotated, or mouse moved or dragged