JPanel size by inner components

Question

Is it possible to tell JPanel to set its size to fit all components that it contains? Something like pack() for JFrame.

edit: The trick with preferredSize d

Answer 1

I would try:

panel.revalidate();
panel.repaint();

This will not necessarily set the panel to its preferred size, that is more dependent on what the layout manager decides to use.

This is useful in cases where you have added/removed components from a panel that is currently displayed and visible.

Update: Based on your screenshot I can say the following: 1) Consider programatically changing the divider location. 2) Consider programatically resizing the window itself horizontally since it seems to be a little tight to show both sides of the split pane. Or both. You can set the divider location by doing

splitPane.setDividerLocation(newSize);

Keep in mind that there are two overloaded methods for this, one taking a float one taking an int. The float does a percentage of the size while the int is the size in pixels. The size is for the left hand panel (or top panel for that orientation). I would consider possibly changing the divider location based on the preferred width of the panels.