Centering a JLabel on a JPanel

Question

I'm using the NetBeans GUI builder to handle my layout (I'm terrible with LayoutManagers) and am trying to place a simple JLabel so that it is always centered (horizontally) inside its parent JPanel. Ideally, this would maintain true even if the JPanel was resized, but if that's a crazy amount of coding than it is sufficient to just be centered when the JPanel is first created.

I'm bad enough trying to handle layouts myself, but since the NetBeans GUI Builder autogenerates immutable code, it's been impossible for me to figure out how to do this centering, and I haven't been able to find anything online to help me.

Thanks to anybody who can steer me in the right direction!

Answer 1

Here are four ways to center a component:

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

class CenterComponent {

    public static JLabel getLabel(String text) {
        return getLabel(text, SwingConstants.LEFT);
    }

    public static JLabel getLabel(String text, int alignment) {
        JLabel l = new JLabel(text, alignment);
        l.setBorder(new LineBorder(Color.RED, 2));
        return l;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                JPanel p = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2,2,4,4));
                p.setBackground(Color.black);
                p.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(4,4,4,4));

                JPanel border = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
                border.add(getLabel(
                    "Border", SwingConstants.CENTER), BorderLayout.CENTER);
                p.add(border);

                JPanel gridbag = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
                gridbag.add(getLabel("GridBag"));
                p.add(gridbag);

                JPanel grid = new JPanel(new GridLayout());
                grid.add(getLabel("Grid", SwingConstants.CENTER));
                p.add(grid);

                // from @0verbose
                JPanel box = new JPanel();
                box.setLayout(new BoxLayout(box, BoxLayout.X_AXIS ));

                box.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
                box.add(getLabel("Box"));
                box.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
                p.add(box);

                JFrame f = new JFrame("Streeeetch me..");
                f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                f.setContentPane(p);
                f.pack();
                f.setLocationByPlatform(true);
                f.setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }
}

Answer 2

By using Borderlayout, you can put any of JComponents to the CENTER area. For an example, see an answer to Stack Overflow question Get rid of the gap between JPanels. This should work.

Answer 3

Even with BoxLayout you can achieve that:

JPanel listPane = new JPanel();
listPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(listPane, BoxLayout.X_AXIS ));

JLabel label = new JLabel();
listPane.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
listPane.add(label);
listPane.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());

mKorbel's solution is perfect for your goal. Anyway I always like to suggest BoxLayout because it's very flexible.