How to set the RowHeight dynamically in a JTable

Question

I want to put a String in a JTable that is longer than the given cell-width. How can I set the rowHeight dynamically so that I can read the whole S

Answer 1

Many good ideas are linked in other answers and also in the related questions.

So here is how I modified you classes to get a table with fully working auto-line-heights:

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel;
import javax.swing.table.TableModel;
import java.awt.*;

public class ExampleTable implements TableModelListener {
    JTable textTable;

    public JPanel createTable() {
        JPanel totalGUI = new JPanel();

        //define titles for table
        String[] title = {"TITLE1", "TITLE2", "TITLE3"};

        //table data
        Object[][] playerdata = {
                {new Integer(3), "Steve", "test test test"},
                {new Integer(32), "Patrick", "du hu hu hu hu hu hu hu uh u kkkkkk oooo pppp"},
                {new Integer(10), "Sarah", "xxxxxxxxxxxxx aaaaaaaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbb ffffdffffdffffdffffd xxxxxxx gggewr  eeeeeeeeee22 ffffd g fffffff zzzzzzz"},};

        //define tablemodel
        TableModel model = new DefaultTableModel(playerdata, title);

        //create object 'textTable'
        textTable = new JTable(model);

        //set column width
        textTable.setAutoResizeMode(JTable.AUTO_RESIZE_OFF);
        textTable.getColumnModel().getColumn(0).setPreferredWidth(17);
        textTable.getColumnModel().getColumn(1).setPreferredWidth(45);
        textTable.getColumnModel().getColumn(2).setPreferredWidth(200);

        //put line breaks if string is longer than cell-width
        RowHeightCellRenderer dynRow = new RowHeightCellRenderer();
        textTable.getColumnModel().getColumn(2).setCellRenderer(dynRow);

        // No more data changes; install listeners
        textTable.getModel().addTableModelListener(this);
        textTable.getColumnModel().addColumnModelListener(new TableColumnModelListener() {
            /**
             * We only need to recalculate once; so track if we are already going to do it.
             */
            boolean columnHeightWillBeCalculated = false;

            @Override
            public void columnAdded(TableColumnModelEvent e) {
            }

            @Override
            public void columnRemoved(TableColumnModelEvent e) {
            }

            @Override
            public void columnMoved(TableColumnModelEvent e) {
            }

            @Override
            public void columnMarginChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
                if (!columnHeightWillBeCalculated && textTable.getTableHeader().getResizingColumn() != null) {
                    columnHeightWillBeCalculated = true;
                    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
                        @Override
                        public void run() {
                            // textTable.getTableHeader().getResizingColumn() is != null as long as the user still is holding the mouse down
                            // To avoid going over all data every few milliseconds wait for user to release
                            if (textTable.getTableHeader().getResizingColumn() != null) {
                                SwingUtilities.invokeLater(this);
                            } else {
                                tableChanged(null);
                                columnHeightWillBeCalculated = false;
                            }
                        }
                    });
                }
            }

            @Override
            public void columnSelectionChanged(ListSelectionEvent e) {
            }
        });

        //scrollbar
        JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(textTable);
        totalGUI.add(scrollPane);
        return totalGUI;
    }

    public void tableChanged(TableModelEvent e) {
        final int first;
        final int last;
        if (e == null || e.getFirstRow() == TableModelEvent.HEADER_ROW) {
            // assume everything changed
            first = 0;
            last = textTable.getModel().getRowCount();
        } else {
            first = e.getFirstRow();
            last = e.getLastRow() + 1;
        }
        // GUI-Changes should be done through the EventDispatchThread which ensures all pending events were processed
        // Also this way nobody will change the text of our RowHeightCellRenderer because a cell is to be rendered
        if(SwingUtilities.isEventDispatchThread()) {
            updateRowHeights(first, last);
        } else {
            SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
                public void run() {
                    updateRowHeights(first, last);
                }
            });
        }
    }

    private void updateRowHeights(final int first, final int last) {
    /*
     * Auto adjust the height of rows in a JTable.
     * The only way to know the row height for sure is to render each cell
     * to determine the rendered height. After your table is populated with
     * data you can do:
     *
     */
        for (int row = first; row < last; row++) {
            int rowHeight = 20;
            for (int column = 0; column < textTable.getColumnCount(); column++) {
                Component comp = textTable.prepareRenderer(textTable.getCellRenderer(row, column), row, column);
                rowHeight = Math.max(rowHeight, comp.getPreferredSize().height);
            }
            if(rowHeight != textTable.getRowHeight(row)) {
                textTable.setRowHeight(row, rowHeight);
                System.out.println("neue Zeilenhöhe: "+rowHeight+" bei Zeile: "+row);
            }
        }
    }

    private static void createAndShowGUI() {

        //create main frame
        JFrame mainFrame = new JFrame("");
        mainFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        ExampleTable test = new ExampleTable();
        JPanel totalGUI = new JPanel();
        totalGUI = test.createTable();

        //visible mode
        mainFrame.add(totalGUI); //integrate main panel to main frame
        mainFrame.pack();
        mainFrame.setVisible(true);

        //adjust dynamically the Row height of each cell
        test.tableChanged(null);
    }


    public static void main (String[] args) {
        createAndShowGUI();
    }//main
}

Important changes:

• calculate height only after JFrame is visible because we may not have the correct font before then
• change rowHeight only from event-dispatch-thread (SwingUtilities.isEventDispatchThread()/SwingUtilities.invokeLater()); otherwise the table might assign different values to our RowHeightCellRenderer while we are in the middle of calculating height
• initalize rowHeight to 20, so we can shrink again
• TableColumnModelListener so we know when the user resizes a column and shrink or grow rowHeights (you can safely remove the Listener if this is undesired)

Also now I only evaluate changed rows for TableModel changes

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.table.*;
import javax.swing.text.BadLocationException;

public class RowHeightCellRenderer extends JTextArea implements TableCellRenderer {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;


    public RowHeightCellRenderer() {
        setLineWrap(true);
        setWrapStyleWord(true);
    }//constructor

    public Component getTableCellRendererComponent (JTable table,
                                                    Object value,
                                                    boolean isSelected,
                                                    boolean hasFocus,
                                                    int row,
                                                    int column ) {
        this.setText((String) value);

        if(isSelected) {
            this.setBackground(table.getSelectionBackground());
            this.setForeground(table.getSelectionForeground());
        } else {
            this.setBackground(table.getBackground());
            this.setForeground(table.getForeground());
        }

        final int columnWidth = table.getColumnModel().getColumn(column).getWidth();
        final int rowHeight = table.getRowHeight(row);
        this.setSize(columnWidth, rowHeight);

        this.validate();
        return this;
    }//getTableCellRendererComponent

    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
        try {
            // Get Rectangle for position after last text-character
            final Rectangle rectangle = this.modelToView(getDocument().getLength());
            if(rectangle != null) {
                return new Dimension(this.getWidth(),
                                     this.getInsets().top + rectangle.y + rectangle.height +
                                                                  this.getInsets().bottom);
            }
        } catch (BadLocationException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();  // TODO: implement catch
        }

        return super.getPreferredSize();
    }
}//RowHeightCellRenderer

Changes:

• setSize() in getTableCellRendererComponent() as otherwise the object is unable to wrap correctly
• calculate preferedSize according to position of last character