Giving a JPanel a percentage-based width

Question

What\'s the easiest way to make a JPanel that takes up a fixed percentage of its parent container, by width?

Its width should update when that of its pa

Answer 1

Another option is to use a SpringLayout:

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

public class SpringLayoutTest {
  private JComponent makeUI() {
    SpringLayout layout = new SpringLayout();

    JPanel p = new JPanel(layout);
    p.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.GREEN, 10));

    Spring pw = layout.getConstraint(SpringLayout.WIDTH,  p);
    Spring ph = layout.getConstraint(SpringLayout.HEIGHT, p);

    JLabel l = new JLabel("label: 5%, 5%, 90%, 55%", SwingConstants.CENTER);
    l.setOpaque(true);
    l.setBackground(Color.ORANGE);
    l.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.RED, 1));

    JButton b = new JButton("button: 50%, 65%, 40%, 30%");

    setPercentage(layout.getConstraints(l), pw, ph, .05f, .05f, .90f, .55f);
    setPercentage(layout.getConstraints(b), pw, ph, .50f, .65f, .40f, .30f);

    p.add(l);
    p.add(b);
    return p;
  }

  private static void setPercentage(
      SpringLayout.Constraints c, Spring pw, Spring ph,
      float sx, float sy, float sw, float sh) {
    c.setX(Spring.scale(pw, sx));
    c.setY(Spring.scale(ph, sy));
    c.setWidth(Spring.scale(pw,  sw));
    c.setHeight(Spring.scale(ph, sh));
  }

  public static void main(String... args) {
    EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
      @Override public void run() {
        createAndShowGUI();
      }
    });
  }
  public static void createAndShowGUI() {
    JFrame frame = new JFrame();
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.getContentPane().add(new SpringLayoutTest().makeUI());
    frame.setSize(320, 240);
    frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    frame.setVisible(true);
  }
}