How do I keep JTextFields in a Java Swing BoxLayout from expanding?

Question

I have a JPanel that looks something like this:

JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));

...

pane         


        

Answer 1

JPanel panel = new JPanel();

Box box = Box.createVerticalBox();

JTextField tf = new JTextField(8);

box.add(tf);
panel.add(box);

frame.getContentPane().add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);

Answer 2

set the max height. or put them in a scroll region

Answer 3

In my case I need a combination of all the answers for it to work properly. If I don't use glue, it is not centered vertically; if I don't restrict maximum size, it extends vertically; if I restrict both width and height, it is too small, being only wide enough to contain the initialization text.

textField = new JTextField("Hello, world!");
textField.setMaximumSize(
    new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE,
    textField.getPreferredSize().height));
Box box = Box.createVerticalBox();
box.add(Box.createVerticalGlue());
box.add(textField);
box.add(Box.createVerticalGlue());

Answer 4

textField = new JTextField( ... );
textField.setMaximumSize( textField.getPreferredSize() );

Answer 5

If you want the width to keep changing, just keep it set to MAX INT. So...

textField.setMaximumSize( 
     new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE, textField.getPreferredSize().height) );