How to set the component size with GridLayout? Is there a better way?

Question

I am working on a larger GUI with Java and I am becoming angry on Layout Managers.

I have a "Settings-Panel" with a variable number of JComponents in it (Labels, Buttons, JSpinners, JSliders,...). I just want the following:

JLabel <-> JComponent

...

My Panel has a size of 500px, so that there is enough space for a lot of components. Unfortunately the GridLayout always stretches the size of the Components to the whole Panel, even if I set a MaximumSize for every component. It looks stupid if there are only two buttons each with a height of 250px.

I tried FlowLayout, but I cannot figure out a way to make new lines properly. I tried BoxLayout.Y_AXIS, but the Components are always centered, and Label and Component are not in the same line.

Does anybody know a good and short way with LayoutManagers to handle this properly?

Did you ever get a decent response to this? I was originally using BoxLayout and ran into this exact problem, so everyone told me to use GridLayout, and I get the same problem as you above. Now your commenters say to go to GridBagLayout. What was the actual solution? — john_science, Jul 14 '12 at 22:53
Unfortunatly I never got any better answers than these here. I think I was finally using GridBagLayout, but I am not that much into Java GUIs currently. — Blackbam, Sep 03 '12 at 20:24
In the end, the only solution that worked for me at all was to manually set the positions of everything. It's not that hard, and it makes me think all of these preset layouts are really very limited-use-case. — john_science, Sep 03 '12 at 20:36

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 15 '11 at 13:55

16

An alternative to other layouts, might be to put your panel with the GridLayout, inside another panel that is a FlowLayout. That way your spacing will be intact but will not expand across the entire available space.

answered Jan 15 '11 at 13:55

jzd

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+1, yes, you are never forced to just use a single layout manager. A simple tip like this can help in many cases. – camickr Jan 15 '11 at 16:33
This answer is great in its simplicity, worked perfect for me too, aside from that to deal with some horizontal alignment issuses I put my GridLayout inside a BoxLayout instead of a FlowLayout, but same principle. – nigelg Oct 12 '15 at 02:38
Would you please give an example? – Mostafa Ayaz Feb 12 '22 at 21:14

Hovercraft Full Of Eels · Answer 2 · 2011-01-15T14:05:11.787

Don't use GridLayout for something it wasn't meant to do. It sounds to me like GridBagLayout would be a better fit for you, either that or MigLayout (though you'll have to download that first since it's not part of standard Java). Either that or combine layout managers such as BoxLayout for the lines and GridLayout to hold all the rows.

For example, using GridBagLayout:

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class LayoutEg1 extends JPanel{
    private static final int ROWS = 10;

    public LayoutEg1() {
        setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
        for (int i = 0; i < ROWS; i++) {
            GridBagConstraints gbc = makeGbc(0, i);
            JLabel label = new JLabel("Row Label " + (i + 1));
            add(label, gbc);

            JPanel panel = new JPanel();
            panel.add(new JCheckBox("check box"));
            panel.add(new JTextField(10));
            panel.add(new JButton("Button"));
            panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder());
            gbc = makeGbc(1, i);
            add(panel, gbc);
        }
    }

    private GridBagConstraints makeGbc(int x, int y) {
        GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
        gbc.gridwidth = 1;
        gbc.gridheight = 1;
        gbc.gridx = x;
        gbc.gridy = y;
        gbc.weightx = x;
        gbc.weighty = 1.0;
        gbc.insets = new Insets(5, 5, 5, 5);
        gbc.anchor = (x == 0) ? GridBagConstraints.LINE_START : GridBagConstraints.LINE_END;
        gbc.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        return gbc;
    }

    private static void createAndShowUI() {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Layout Eg1");
        frame.getContentPane().add(new LayoutEg1());
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowUI();
            }
        });
    }
}

damix911 · Answer 3 · 2013-01-27T08:57:12.637

In my project I managed to use GridLayout and results are very stable, with no flickering and with a perfectly working vertical scrollbar.

First I created a JPanel for the settings; in my case it is a grid with a row for each parameter and two columns: left column is for labels and right column is for components. I believe your case is similar.

JPanel yourSettingsPanel = new JPanel();
yourSettingsPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(numberOfParams, 2));

I then populate this panel by iterating on my parameters and alternating between adding a JLabel and adding a component.

for (int i = 0; i < numberOfParams; ++i) {
    yourSettingsPanel.add(labels[i]);
    yourSettingsPanel.add(components[i]);
}

To prevent yourSettingsPanel from extending to the entire container I first wrap it in the north region of a dummy panel, that I called northOnlyPanel.

JPanel northOnlyPanel = new JPanel();
northOnlyPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
northOnlyPanel.add(yourSettingsPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);

Finally I wrap the northOnlyPanel in a JScrollPane, which should behave nicely pretty much anywhere.

JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(northOnlyPanel,
                                     JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS,
                                     JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);

Most likely you want to display this JScrollPane extended inside a JFrame; you can add it to a BorderLayout JFrame, in the CENTER region:

window.add(scroll, BorderLayout.CENTER);

In my case I put it on the left column of a GridLayout(1, 2) panel, and I use the right column to display contextual help for each parameter.

JTextArea help = new JTextArea();
help.setLineWrap(true);
help.setWrapStyleWord(true);
help.setEditable(false);

JPanel split = new JPanel();
split.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 2));
split.add(scroll);
split.add(help);

The combination of a GridLayout inside a BorderLayout works very well to get the features of a GridLayout without unnaturally stretching its contents. Good idea! — David, Sep 18 '14 at 21:22

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 15 '11 at 13:54

4

For more complex layouts I often used GridBagLayout, which is more complex, but that's the price. Today, I would probably check out MiGLayout.

answered Jan 15 '11 at 13:54

miku

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 15 '11 at 13:51

2

You need to try one of the following:

They offer many more features and will be easier to get what you are looking for.

answered Jan 15 '11 at 13:51

Vincent Ramdhanie

102,349
23
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How to set the component size with GridLayout? Is there a better way?

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