Swing: column-flow layout manager?

Question

I\'m looking for a LayoutManager that will allow me to show a set of components in a container (e.g. a JPanel), in columns, roughly as follows.

Answer 1

you might want to look into GribBagLayout http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/layout/gridbag.html

With gridbag layout knowing the size you can set how many components you would have in a particular row.

but if i am not mistaken shouldnt gridlayout do exactly what you want.

lets go with the simple labels. if the size*2 of the label is longer than the width, then it will show only 1 label per row. and so on.

here is an example which should clear it up

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

import javax.swing.*;

public class GridLayoutDemo implements ActionListener{
    JTextField j1;
    JTextField j2;
    JFrame f;
    public void show(){
        j1=new JTextField("x dimention");
        j2=new JTextField("y dimention");
        f=new JFrame();
        JPanel p=new JPanel();
        JLabel l2=new JLabel("abcdefghijklmnoqrstuvw");
        JLabel l1=new JLabel("abcdefghijklmnoqrstuvw");
        JLabel l3=new JLabel("abcdefghijklmnoqrstuvw");
        JLabel l4=new JLabel("abcdefghijklmnoqrstuvw");
        JButton b=new JButton("new size");
        b.addActionListener(this);

        p.add(l1);
        p.add(l2);
        p.add(l3);
        p.add(l4);
        p.add(j1);
        p.add(j2);
        p.add(b);
        f.setSize(400, 200);
        f.add(p);

        //f.pack();
        f.setVisible(true);

    }

    public static void main(String[] args){
        GridLayoutDemo g=new GridLayoutDemo();
        g.show();
    }
    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        int x=Integer.parseInt(j1.getText());
        int y=Integer.parseInt(j2.getText());
        f.setSize(x,y);
        f.setVisible(true);

    }
}

Answer 2

One other component that admits this kind of layout is JList, which includes a VERTICAL_WRAP that "Indicates a newspaper style layout with cells flowing vertically then horizontally." Depending on your needs, a suitable ListCellRenderer, mentioned here, may be suffice.