How do I set or change JTable column width?

Each column of a JTable component is represented by the TableColumn class. The method for setting or changing the width of the column includes the setMinWidth(), setMaxWidth() and setPreferredWidth(). These methods are used to set the minimum, maximum and the preferred width of the column respectively.

When we set only the preferred width of a table column and the container get resized the preferred width will be used to recalculate the new column width to fill the available space, but the preferred width value itself does not change.

TableColumn object of a table can be obtained by calling table’s getColumnModel() method which return an instance of TableColumnModel. After having the TableColumModel in hand we can get the table’s column by calling the getColumn(int index) method and passes the index of the column.

package org.kodejava.swing;

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

public class TableColumnWidthDemo extends JPanel {
    public TableColumnWidthDemo() {
        initializePanel();
    }

    public static void showFrame() {
        JPanel panel = new TableColumnWidthDemo();
        panel.setOpaque(true);

        // Creates and configures the JFrame component for our
        // program.
        JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setContentPane(panel);
        frame.setTitle("Premiere League - Season 2021-2022");
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(TableColumnWidthDemo::showFrame);
    }

    private void initializePanel() {
        // Defines table's column names.
        String[] columnNames = {
                "CLUB", "MP", "W", "D", "L", "GF", "GA", "GD", "PTS"
        };

        // Defines table's data.
        Object[][] data = {
                {"Chelsea", 8, 6, 1, 1, 16, 3, 13, 19},
                {"Liverpool", 8, 5, 3, 0, 22, 6, 16, 18},
                {"Manchester City", 8, 5, 2, 1, 16, 3, 13, 17},
                {"Brighton", 8, 4, 3, 1, 8, 5, 3, 15},
                {"Tottenham", 8, 5, 0, 3, 9, 12, -3, 15}
        };

        // Defines table's column width.
        int[] columnsWidth = {
                200, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 25, 50
        };

        // Creates an instance of JTable and fill it with data and
        // column names information.
        JTable table = new JTable(data, columnNames);

        // Configures table's column width.
        int i = 0;
        for (int width : columnsWidth) {
            TableColumn column = table.getColumnModel().getColumn(i++);
            column.setMinWidth(width);
            column.setMaxWidth(width);
            column.setPreferredWidth(width);
        }

        JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(table);
        table.setFillsViewportHeight(true);
        this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        this.add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 500));
    }
}

Here is the table created by the program above:

JTable Column Width Demo

JTable Column Width Demo

How do I create a table model for JTable component?

Another way to create and configure a JTable component is using a table model. A table model is more preferred to using array or vector as the data source for the table.

The simplest way to create a table model is by extending the AbstractTableModel abstract class which implements the TableModel interface. The AbstractTableModel implements the standard behaviour of a table model. It implements almost all the methods of the TableModel interface, except three methods.

These three methods are the getValueAt(int rowIndex, int columnIndex) method, the getRowCount() method and the getColumnCount() method. The code below show you how to create a table model.

package org.kodejava.swing;

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.table.AbstractTableModel;
import javax.swing.table.TableColumnModel;
import java.awt.*;

public class TableModelDemo extends JPanel {
    public TableModelDemo() {
        initializePanel();
    }

    public static void showFrame() {
        JPanel panel = new TableModelDemo();
        panel.setOpaque(true);

        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Premiere League - Season 2021-2022");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setContentPane(panel);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(TableModelDemo::showFrame);
    }

    private void initializePanel() {
        // Creates an instance of PremiereLeagueTableModel
        PremiereLeagueTableModel tableModel = new PremiereLeagueTableModel();

        // Creates an instance of JTable with a TableModel
        // as the constructor parameters.
        JTable table = new JTable(tableModel);
        table.setFillsViewportHeight(true);
        TableColumnModel columnModel = table.getColumnModel();
        columnModel.getColumn(0).setPreferredWidth(200);

        JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(table);

        this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 500));
        this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        this.add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    }

    static class PremiereLeagueTableModel extends AbstractTableModel {
        // TableModel's column names
        private final String[] columnNames = {
                "CLUB", "MP", "W", "D", "L", "GF", "GA", "GD", "PTS"
        };

        // TableModel's data
        private final Object[][] data = {
                {"Chelsea", 8, 6, 1, 1, 16, 3, 13, 19},
                {"Liverpool", 8, 5, 3, 0, 22, 6, 16, 18},
                {"Manchester City", 8, 5, 2, 1, 16, 3, 13, 17},
                {"Brighton", 8, 4, 3, 1, 8, 5, 3, 15},
                {"Tottenham", 8, 5, 0, 3, 9, 12, -3, 15}
        };

        /**
         * Returns the number of rows in the table model.
         */
        public int getRowCount() {
            return data.length;
        }

        /**
         * Returns the number of columns in the table model.
         */
        public int getColumnCount() {
            return columnNames.length;
        }

        /**
         * Returns the column name for the column index.
         */
        @Override
        public String getColumnName(int column) {
            return columnNames[column];
        }

        /**
         * Returns data type of the column specified by its index.
         */
        @Override
        public Class<?> getColumnClass(int columnIndex) {
            return getValueAt(0, columnIndex).getClass();
        }

        /**
         * Returns the value of a table model at the specified
         * row index and column index.
         */
        public Object getValueAt(int rowIndex, int columnIndex) {
            return data[rowIndex][columnIndex];
        }
    }
}
JTable TableModel Demo

JTable TableModel Demo

How do I create a simple JTable component?

The code snippet presented below shows you how to create a simple JTable component in a swing application. To create a JTable component we initialize it using the constructor that accept two parameters.

The first parameter is the table’s row of data which type is Object[][], a two-dimensional array of Object. The second parameter is the table’s column names which type is Object[], an array of object.

After the JTable instance is created we place it inside a scroll pane component which in turn is added to the frame’s content pane.

package org.kodejava.swing;

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.text.MessageFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;

public class SimpleJTableDemo extends JFrame {
    public SimpleJTableDemo() throws HeadlessException {
        initializeUI();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> new SimpleJTableDemo().setVisible(true));
    }

    private void initializeUI() {
        // Defines table's column names.
        String[] columnNames = {
                "ID", "Name", "Date of Birth", "Sex"
        };

        // Defines table's data.
        Object[][] rowData = {
                {1, "Alice", createDOB(1980, Calendar.JANUARY, 1), "F"},
                {2, "Bob", createDOB(1982, Calendar.JUNE, 21), "M"},
                {3, "Carol", createDOB(1970, Calendar.OCTOBER, 12), "M"},
                {4, "Mallory", createDOB(1988, Calendar.FEBRUARY, 19), "M"}
        };

        // Initializes an instance of JTable and specifies the table
        // data and column names. Then we place the table in a scroll pane.
        JTable table = new JTable(rowData, columnNames);
        JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane(table);

        // Sets the frame setting.
        setTitle("Simple JTable Demo");
        setSize(new Dimension(500, 500));
        setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());

        getContentPane().add(pane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    }

    private String createDOB(int year, int month, int day) {
        Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
        calendar.set(year, month, day);
        return MessageFormat.format("{0,date,dd-MMM-yyyy}", calendar.getTime());
    }
}

When we run the program we will see the following result:

Simple JTable Demo

Simple JTable Demo

How do I break a paragraph into sentences?

This example show you how to use the BreakIterator.getSentenceInstance() to breaks a paragraphs into sentences that composes the paragraph. To get the BreakIterator instance we call the getSentenceInstance() factory method and passes a locale information.

In the count(BreakIterator bi, String source) method we iterate the break to extract sentences that composes the paragraph which value is stored in the paragraph variable.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.BreakIterator;
import java.util.Locale;

public class BreakSentenceExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String paragraph = """
                Line boundary analysis determines where a text \
                string can be broken when line-wrapping. The \
                mechanism correctly handles punctuation and \
                hyphenated words. Actual line breaking needs to \
                also consider the available line width and is \
                handled by higher-level software.
                """;

        BreakIterator iterator = BreakIterator.getSentenceInstance(Locale.US);

        int sentences = count(iterator, paragraph);
        System.out.println("Number of sentences: " + sentences);
    }

    private static int count(BreakIterator bi, String source) {
        int counter = 0;
        bi.setText(source);

        int lastIndex = bi.first();
        while (lastIndex != BreakIterator.DONE) {
            int firstIndex = lastIndex;
            lastIndex = bi.next();

            if (lastIndex != BreakIterator.DONE) {
                String sentence = source.substring(firstIndex, lastIndex);
                System.out.println("sentence = " + sentence);
                counter++;
            }
        }
        return counter;
    }
}

Our program will print the following result on the console screen:

sentence = Line boundary analysis determines where a text string can be broken when line-wrapping. 
sentence = The mechanism correctly handles punctuation and hyphenated words. 
sentence = Actual line breaking needs to also consider the available line width and is handled by higher-level software.

Number of sentences: 3

How do I break a text or sentence into words?

At first, it might look simple. We can just split the text using the String.split(), the word is split using space. But what if a word ends with questions marks (?) or exclamation marks (!) instead? There might be some other rules that we also need to care.

Using the java.text.BreakIterator makes it much simpler. The class’s getWordInstance() factory method creates a BreakIterator instance for words break. Instantiating a BreakIterator and passing a locale information makes the iterator to breaks the text or sentence according the rule of the locale. This is really helpful when we are working with a complex language such as Japanese or Chinese.

Let us see an example of using the BreakIterator below.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.BreakIterator;
import java.util.Locale;

public class BreakIteratorExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String data = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";
        String search = "dog";

        // Gets an instance of BreakIterator for word break for the
        // given locale. We can instantiate a BreakIterator without
        // specifying the locale. The locale is important when we
        // are working with languages like Japanese or Chinese where
        // the breaks standard may be different compared to English.
        BreakIterator bi = BreakIterator.getWordInstance(Locale.US);

        // Set the text string to be scanned.
        bi.setText(data);

        // Iterates the boundary / breaks
        System.out.println("Iterates each word: ");
        int count = 0;
        int lastIndex = bi.first();
        while (lastIndex != BreakIterator.DONE) {
            int firstIndex = lastIndex;
            lastIndex = bi.next();

            if (lastIndex != BreakIterator.DONE
                    && Character.isLetterOrDigit(data.charAt(firstIndex))) {
                String word = data.substring(firstIndex, lastIndex);
                System.out.printf("'%s' found at (%s, %s)%n",
                        word, firstIndex, lastIndex);

                // Counts how many times the word dog occurs.
                if (word.equalsIgnoreCase(search)) {
                    count++;
                }
            }
        }

        System.out.println("Number of word '" + search + "' found = " + count);
    }
}

Here are the program output:

Iterates each word: 
'The' found at (0, 3)
'quick' found at (4, 9)
'brown' found at (10, 15)
'fox' found at (16, 19)
'jumps' found at (20, 25)
'over' found at (26, 30)
'the' found at (31, 34)
'lazy' found at (35, 39)
'dog' found at (40, 43)
Number of word 'dog' found = 1

How do I sort strings data using CollationKey class?

When the strings must be compared multiple times, for example when sorting a list of strings. It’s more efficient to use CollationKey class. Using CollationKey to compare strings is generally faster than using Collator.compare().

You can not create CollationKey directly. Rather, generate them by calling Collator.getCollationKey() method. You can only compare CollationKey generated from the same Collator object.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.CollationKey;
import java.text.Collator;
import java.util.Arrays;

public class CollationKeyExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] countries = {
                "German",
                "United Kingdom",
                "United States",
                "French",
                "Japan",
                "Myanmar",
                "India"
        };

        System.out.println("original:");
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(countries));

        // Gets Collator object of default locale
        Collator collator = Collator.getInstance();

        // Creates and initializes CollationKey array
        CollationKey[] keys = new CollationKey[countries.length];

        for (int i = 0; i < countries.length; i++) {
            // Generate CollationKey by calling
            // Collator.getCollationKey() method then assign into
            // keys which is an array of CollationKey.
            // The CollationKey for the given String based on the 
            // Collator's collation rules.
            keys[i] = collator.getCollationKey(countries[i]);
        }

        // Sort the keys array
        Arrays.sort(keys);

        // Print out the sorted array
        System.out.println("sorted result: ");
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        for (CollationKey key : keys) {
            sb.append(key.getSourceString()).append(",");
        }
        System.out.println(sb);
    }
}

Below is the result of the program:

original:
[German, United Kingdom, United States, French, Japan, Myanmar, India]
sorted result: 
French,German,India,Japan,Myanmar,United Kingdom,United States,

How do I sort an array of string data using RuleBasedCollator class?

We can use the java.text.Collator class to sort strings in language-specific order. Using the java.text.Collator class makes the string not just sorted by the ASCII code of their characters, but it will follow the language natural order of the characters.

If the predefined collation rules do not meet your needs, you can design your own rules and assign them to a RuleBasedCollator object. Customized collation rules are contained in a String object that is passed to the RuleBasedCollator constructor.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.RuleBasedCollator;
import java.util.Arrays;

public class RuleBasedCollatorDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String rule1 = ("< a < b < c");
        String rule2 = ("< c < b < a");
        String rule3 = ("< c < a < b");

        String[] words = {
                "apple",
                "banana",
                "carrot",
                "apricot",
                "blueberry",
                "cabbage"
        };

        try {
            RuleBasedCollator rb1 = new RuleBasedCollator(rule1);
            RuleBasedCollator rb2 = new RuleBasedCollator(rule2);
            RuleBasedCollator rb3 = new RuleBasedCollator(rule3);

            System.out.println("original: ");
            System.out.println(Arrays.toString(words));

            // Sort based on rule1
            Arrays.sort(words, rb1);
            System.out.println("rule: " + rb1.getRules());
            System.out.println(Arrays.toString(words));

            // Sort based on rule2
            Arrays.sort(words, rb2);
            System.out.println("rule: " + rb2.getRules());
            System.out.println(Arrays.toString(words));

            // Sort based on rule3
            Arrays.sort(words, rb3);
            System.out.println("rule: " + rb3.getRules());
            System.out.println(Arrays.toString(words));
        } catch (ParseException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Below is the result of sorting strings using a different RuleBasedCollator

original: 
[apple, banana, carrot, apricot, blueberry, cabbage]
rule: < a < b < c
[apple, apricot, banana, blueberry, cabbage, carrot]
rule: < c < b < a
[cabbage, carrot, banana, blueberry, apple, apricot]
rule: < c < a < b
[cabbage, carrot, apple, apricot, banana, blueberry]

How do I set the initial color of a JColorChooser?

To create an instance of a JColorChooser with a default or initial color such as Color.BLUE you can pass the Color object to the constructor of the JColorChooser component. The example below shows how to do it.

package org.kodejava.swing;

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

public class JColorChooserDefaultColor extends JFrame {
    public JColorChooserDefaultColor() throws HeadlessException {
        initializeUI();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(
                () -> new JColorChooserDefaultColor().setVisible(true));
    }

    private void initializeUI() {
        setTitle("JColorChooser Demo");
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        // Creates an instance of JColorChooser and set Color.BLUE
        // as the default selected color.
        JColorChooser jcc = new JColorChooser(Color.BLUE);

        getContentPane().add(jcc, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        this.pack();
    }
}

JColorChooser Initial Color

How do I get the selected color from JColorChooser?

To get the selected color from JColorChooser we need to create an implementation of the ChangeListener interface. This interface provides a single method call stateChanged(ChangeEvent e). The instance of this interface implementation need to be passed to JColorChooser by calling the JColorChooser.getSelectionModel().addChangeListener() method.

In this example our ChangeListener implementation get the selected color and replace the foreground color the JLabel component.

package org.kodejava.swing;

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeListener;
import java.awt.*;

public class JColorChooserColorSelection extends JFrame {
    private JColorChooser jcc = null;
    private JLabel label = null;

    public JColorChooserColorSelection() {
        initializeUI();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(
                () -> new JColorChooserColorSelection().setVisible(true));
    }

    private void initializeUI() {
        setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());

        jcc = new JColorChooser();
        jcc.getSelectionModel().addChangeListener(new ColorSelection());
        getContentPane().add(jcc, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);

        label = new JLabel("Selected Font Color", JLabel.CENTER);
        label.setFont(new Font("SansSerif", Font.BOLD, 24));
        label.setForeground(Color.BLACK);
        label.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 100));
        getContentPane().add(label, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        this.pack();
    }

    /**
     * A ChangeListener implementation for listening the color
     * selection of the JColorChooser component.
     */
    class ColorSelection implements ChangeListener {
        public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
            Color color = jcc.getColor();
            label.setForeground(color);
        }
    }
}

JColorChooser get selected color

How do I use JColorChooser component?

The JColorChooser is a Swing component that provides a palette from where we can select a color code in RGB format. The JColorChooser component has two parts, the tabbed pane of color selection and a preview box. The tabbed has three tabs which allows us to select a color from a swatches, a HSB (Hue, Saturation and Brightness) combination and an RGB (Red Blue Green) color combination.

package org.kodejava.swing;

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeListener;
import java.awt.*;

public class JColorChooserDemo extends JFrame implements ChangeListener {
    private JColorChooser colorChooser = null;

    public JColorChooserDemo() throws HeadlessException {
        initUI();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(
                () -> new JColorChooserDemo().setVisible(true));
    }

    private void initUI() {
        // Set title and default close operation of this JFrame.
        setTitle("JColorChooser Demo");
        setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());

        // Creates an instance of JColorChooser component and
        // adds it to the frame's content.
        colorChooser = new JColorChooser();
        getContentPane().add(colorChooser, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);

        // Add a change listener to get the selected color in this
        // JColorChooser component.
        colorChooser.getSelectionModel().addChangeListener(this);
        this.pack();
    }

    /**
     * Handles color selection in the JColorChooser component.
     *
     * @param e the ChangeEvent
     */
    public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
        // Get the selected color in the JColorChooser component
        // and print the color in RGB format to the console.
        Color color = colorChooser.getColor();
        System.out.println("color = " + color);
    }
}

When you run the program above a frame with JColorChooser component will be shown. A string of the color code in an RGB format will be printed in the console if you click a color from the color selection.

Here is an image of a JColorChooser component.

JColorChooser Component Demo