How to display multiple lines in a JTable Cell

Question

I would like to create a JTable like the below picture:

Which java class will be used and possibly how?

Answer 1

Multiline JTable cell can make using a customized TableCellRenderer easily. Use following steps to create the TableCellRenderer.

Step 1: Create TableCellRenderer

Following code shows to create a multi-line TableCellRenderer for String[] values. It's possible to change the String[] into a Vector or an other Collection type

public class MultiLineTableCellRenderer extends JList<String> implements TableCellRenderer {

    @Override
    public Component getTableCellRendererComponent(JTable table, Object value, boolean isSelected, boolean hasFocus, int row, int column) {
        //make multi line where the cell value is String[]
        if (value instanceof String[]) {
            setListData((String[]) value);
        }

        //cell backgroud color when selected
        if (isSelected) {
            setBackground(UIManager.getColor("Table.selectionBackground"));
        } else {
            setBackground(UIManager.getColor("Table.background"));
        }

        return this;
    }
}

Step 2: Set TableCellRenderer into the JTable

    MultiLineTableCellRenderer renderer = new MultiLineTableCellRenderer();

    //set TableCellRenderer into a specified JTable column class
    table.setDefaultRenderer(String[].class, renderer);

    //or, set TableCellRenderer into a specified JTable column
    table.getColumnModel().getColumn(columnIndex).setCellRenderer(renderer);

This is my tested screenshot:

Answer 2

basically you can put any type of JComponents to the JTable cell, depends of if is contents editable, thats talking me about follows

• JTable with one TableColumn without TableHeader

• JPanel (GridBagLayout) with JLabels or JTextFields

• JList

Answer 3

This will not work if you use a DefaultTableModel. You have to use a custom model for your table that extends AbstractTableModel and have to override the method getColumnClass(), along with other abstract methods.

You will also set your table row height as mentioned in a comment above.

The official documentation from Oracle clarifies this.