Why does GridBagLayout center my components instead of putting it in the corner?

Question

So far I managed to avoid using the GridBagLayout (by hand code) as much as possible, but I could not avoid it this time and I am reading the SUN's tutorial GridBagLayout So far it is not going well. I think I am missunderstanding something.
For example I try the following code (similar to the one in SUN's post):

public class MainFrame extends JFrame { 


    public static void main(String args[]) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                try {
                    MainFrame frame = new MainFrame();
                    frame.setVisible(true);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });
    }

    /**
     * Create the frame
     */
    public MainFrame() {
        super();
        setBounds(100, 100, 500, 375);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        Container mainContainer = getContentPane();

        mainContainer.setLayout(new GridBagLayout());       

        //add label
        JLabel someLabel = new JLabel("Label 1:");
        GridBagConstraints constraints = new GridBagConstraints();

        constraints.gridx = 0;
        constraints.gridy = 0;
        //constraints.anchor = GridBagConstraints.FIRST_LINE_START;
        //constraints.weightx = 0.5;
        mainContainer.add(someLabel, constraints);      

        JTextField someText = new JTextField(30);

        constraints = new GridBagConstraints();

        constraints.gridx = 1;
        constraints.gridy = 0;
        constraints.weightx = 0.5;
        mainContainer.add(someText, constraints);

        //
    }

}

I get the label and the textfield one next to the other in the center of the frame.
But I was expecting that they would show up in the top left corner since the gridx and gridy is 0 for the label.
Even if I set constraints.anchor = GridBagConstraints.FIRST_LINE_START; still the same result.
Am I wrong here?
From the SUN's post:

Specify the row and column at the upper left of the component. The leftmost column has address gridx=0 and the top row has address gridy=0.

Answer 1

Add constraints.weighty = 1; to the JLabel constraints and constraints.anchor = GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST; to the TextField constraints.

EDIT:

From Oracle's GridBagLayout guide:

Larger numbers indicate that the component's row or column should get more space. For each column, the weight is related to the highest weightx specified for a component within that column, with each multicolumn component's weight being split somehow between the columns the component is in. Similarly, each row's weight is related to the highest weighty specified for a component within that row. Extra space tends to go toward the rightmost column and bottom row.

Answer 2

You need to read further down in the Swing tutorial for the section on weightX/weightY where it states:

Unless you specify at least one non-zero value for weightx or weighty, all the components clump together in the center of their container.

You specified a weightX but not a weightY.

Edit, it's more complicated than I thought. It appears you also need to specify:

constraints.anchor = GridBagConstraints.FIRST_LINE_START;

for both components in addiation to the weighty.

Answer 3

You can achieve this by using a trick, add a dummy component after your row and expand it to fill the vertical space. Also you can re-use the constraints, no need to create a new object:

EDIT: ok forget the trick :( The right way is as Deon Botha and BenCole said, I've updated my code using the anchor

Please DON'T accept this answer, accept either Deon's or Ben's

public class MainFrame extends JFrame { 
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                try {
                    MainFrame frame = new MainFrame();
                    frame.setVisible(true);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });
    }

public MainFrame() {
    super();
    setBounds(100, 100, 500, 375);
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

    Container mainContainer = getContentPane();
    mainContainer.setLayout(new GridBagLayout());       

    JLabel someLabel = new JLabel("Label 1:");
    JTextField someText = new JTextField(30);

    GridBagConstraints constraints = new GridBagConstraints();
    constraints.anchor = GridBagConstraints.FIRST_LINE_START;

    constraints.gridx = 0;
    constraints.gridy = 0;    
    constraints.weightx = 1.0;
    mainContainer.add(someLabel, constraints);      

    constraints.gridx = 1;                       
    constraints.weightx = 1.0;
    constraints.weighty = 1.0;        
    mainContainer.add(someText, constraints);                       
}
}

Answer 4

I may not be answering your question directly, but trust me you should do your trial and erros on the layouts with an IDE. I personally suggests Netbeans. There you can drag and drop and then take a look over the properties. At first you would have some default values given in the property inspector and hence less auto generated code for that. But then, once you start playing with the layouts, you can see the code and get a nice understanding of knowing what you do how you do.

Answer 5

This worked for me:

public class NewJFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    public NewJFrame() {
        initComponents();
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    private void initComponents() {
        java.awt.GridBagConstraints gridBagConstraints;

        jPanel2 = new javax.swing.JPanel();
        jComboBox3 = new javax.swing.JComboBox();
        jComboBox4 = new javax.swing.JComboBox();
        jComboBox5 = new javax.swing.JComboBox();

        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setBackground(new java.awt.Color(255, 204, 51));
        setMinimumSize(new java.awt.Dimension(800, 600));
        getContentPane().setLayout(null);

        jPanel2.setLayout(new java.awt.GridBagLayout());

        jComboBox3.setModel(new javax.swing.DefaultComboBoxModel(new String[] { "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3", "Item 4" }));
        gridBagConstraints = new java.awt.GridBagConstraints();
        gridBagConstraints.gridx = 0;
        gridBagConstraints.gridy = 0;
        gridBagConstraints.fill = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        gridBagConstraints.anchor = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST;
        gridBagConstraints.weightx = 1.0;
        jPanel2.add(jComboBox3, gridBagConstraints);

        jComboBox4.setModel(new javax.swing.DefaultComboBoxModel(new String[] { "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3", "Item 4" }));
        gridBagConstraints = new java.awt.GridBagConstraints();
        gridBagConstraints.gridx = 0;
        gridBagConstraints.gridy = 1;
        gridBagConstraints.fill = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        gridBagConstraints.anchor = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST;
        gridBagConstraints.weightx = 1.0;
        jPanel2.add(jComboBox4, gridBagConstraints);

        jComboBox5.setModel(new javax.swing.DefaultComboBoxModel(new String[] { "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3", "Item 4" }));
        gridBagConstraints = new java.awt.GridBagConstraints();
        gridBagConstraints.gridx = 0;
        gridBagConstraints.gridy = 2;
        gridBagConstraints.fill = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        gridBagConstraints.anchor = java.awt.GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST;
        gridBagConstraints.weightx = 1.0;
        gridBagConstraints.weighty = 1.0;
        jPanel2.add(jComboBox5, gridBagConstraints);

        getContentPane().add(jPanel2);
        jPanel2.setBounds(30, 40, 150, 260);

        pack();
    }

    public static void main(String args[]) {
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                new NewJFrame().setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    private javax.swing.JComboBox jComboBox3;
    private javax.swing.JComboBox jComboBox4;
    private javax.swing.JComboBox jComboBox5;
    private javax.swing.JPanel jPanel2;
}