How to fill left over space regarding Layout Managers?

Question

I recently have been developing a Swing application. I have run into a problem with Layout managers. I can't seem to figure out how to make components in the layout grow all the way to the edge of their parent container. Let me explain.

Say I have 8 buttons all in one row. Depending on the window size will determine if they take up all the space. GBL I have found centers so both space on left and right. BoxLayout usually space on the right side. This is probably due their anchors or alignment.

I think the problem is because the Layouts when all components have same settings it tries to give each component same space. So that little extra space can't be divided up equally to each component they leave it out.

I was wondering if there was a work around for this. Like the space is so small I was hoping there was a way to make last component eat it up or divide it best it can between the components.

Here is example code showing the problem. Note when you resize the panel you get extra space.

public class LeftoverExample {

    public static void main(String[] args){
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
            public void run(){
                LeftoverExample.createGUI();
            }
        });
    }

    public static void createGUI(){
        JFrame jF = new JFrame();
        jF.setSize(new Dimension(1333,500));
        jF.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        //Create ContentPane
        JPanel contentPane = new JPanel();
        contentPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(contentPane, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));

        GridBagLayout gBL = new GridBagLayout();
        gBL.columnWidths = new int[]{0};
        gBL.rowHeights = new int[]{50, 50, 50 , 50};
        contentPane.setLayout(gBL);

        //Initial Constraints
        GridBagConstraints gBC = new GridBagConstraints();
        gBC.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
        gBC.gridx = 0;
        gBC.gridy = 0;
        gBC.weightx = 1;
        gBC.weighty = 0;
        gBC.insets = new Insets(10, 0, 10, 0);

        //Add Examples to ContentPane
        contentPane.add(LeftoverExample.createGBL(false), gBC);
        gBC.gridy++;
        contentPane.add(LeftoverExample.createGBL(true), gBC);
        gBC.gridy++;
        contentPane.add(LeftoverExample.createBoxLayout(false), gBC);
        gBC.gridy++;
        contentPane.add(LeftoverExample.createBoxLayout(true), gBC);

        //Final
        jF.setContentPane(contentPane);
        jF.setVisible(true);
    }

    private static JComponent createGBL(boolean addButtons){
        //GBL Example
        JLabel gBLJLabel = new JLabel("GridBagLayout");
        gBLJLabel.setVerticalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
        gBLJLabel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(gBLJLabel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
        gBLJLabel.setBackground(Color.CYAN);
        gBLJLabel.setOpaque(true);
        gBLJLabel.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE, Integer.MAX_VALUE));
        GridBagLayout gBL = new GridBagLayout();
        gBL.columnWidths = new int[]{0};
        gBL.rowHeights = new int[]{50};
        gBLJLabel.setLayout(gBL);

        //Initial Constraints
        GridBagConstraints gBC = new GridBagConstraints();
        gBC.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
        gBC.gridx = 0;
        gBC.gridy = 0;
        gBC.weightx = 1;
        gBC.weighty = 0;
        gBC.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0);

        //Add to GBL Panel
        if(addButtons){
            LeftoverExample.addButtons(gBLJLabel, gBC);
            LeftoverExample.addButtons(gBLJLabel, gBC);
            LeftoverExample.addButtons(gBLJLabel, gBC);
            LeftoverExample.addButtons(gBLJLabel, gBC);
            LeftoverExample.addButtons(gBLJLabel, gBC);
            LeftoverExample.addButtons(gBLJLabel, gBC);
        }
        return gBLJLabel;
    }

    private static JComponent createBoxLayout(boolean addButtons){
        //BoxLayout Example
        JLabel boxLayoutJL = new JLabel("BOX_LAYOUT");
        boxLayoutJL.setVerticalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
        boxLayoutJL.setLayout(new BoxLayout(boxLayoutJL, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
        boxLayoutJL.setBackground(Color.GREEN);
        boxLayoutJL.setOpaque(true);
        boxLayoutJL.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE, Integer.MAX_VALUE));

        //Add to BoxLayout Panel
        if(addButtons){
            LeftoverExample.addButtons(boxLayoutJL);
            LeftoverExample.addButtons(boxLayoutJL);
            LeftoverExample.addButtons(boxLayoutJL);
        }
        return boxLayoutJL;
    }

    private static JButton createButton(Color c){
        JButton jB = new JButton();
        jB.setBackground(c);
        jB.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE, Integer.MAX_VALUE));
        return jB;
    }

    private static void addButtons(JComponent jC, GridBagConstraints gBC){
        //Create Buttons
        Color[] colorA = {Color.RED, Color.BLUE, Color.BLACK, Color.GREEN};
        for(Color c : colorA){
            jC.add(LeftoverExample.createButton(c), gBC);
            gBC.gridx++;
        }
    }

    private static void addButtons(JComponent jC){
        //Create Buttons
        Color[] colorA = {Color.BLUE, Color.BLACK, Color.GREEN, Color.RED};
        for(Color c : colorA){
            jC.add(LeftoverExample.createButton(c));
        }
    }
}

See how each West and East side there is some space left that the parent (in this case JLabel) takes up but the buttons don't. I want to be able to have the buttons take up that space as well.

Picture showing example:

Answer 1

The problem is caused by Swing using integer values for dimensions rather than double.

Taking this fact into consideration, the remainder r of the division of the containers width divided by the number of Component (in your case JButton objects) objects it contains can be used to increase the size of the first r Component objects by 1 to compensate. Obviously this means the first r Component objects will be +1 larger than the other Components, but this should not be noticeable.

In order to update the width of the Component objects we need to have access to there container (e.g. JPanel) and all the Component objects we wish to update. In my example, I will use a List for this purpose.

Here is a method to do the work of resizing the Component objects accordingly.

private static void fixComponentWidths(Component container,
    List<? extends Component> componentList, int componentHeight) {

    if (!componentList.isEmpty()) { // Avoid possible division by zero

        // get the desired component width for the container using integer division
        int baseComponentWidth = container.getWidth() / componentList.size();

        // find the remainder
        int remainder = container.getWidth() % componentList.size();

        // update all the components
        for (int i = 0; i < componentList.size(); i++) {

            // the component width will be the base width plus 1 iff i < remainder
            int componentWidth = baseComponentWidth;
            if (i < remainder) {
                componentWidth++;
            }

            // update the maximum size
            componentList.get(i).setMaximumSize(new Dimension(componentWidth, componentHeight));
        }

        // be sure to revalidate otherwise it may not work
        container.revalidate();
    }
}

In order for this to work on resize, a ComponentListener must be implemented for our container. This could either be the JFrame or just a JPanel (as per my example). Note, only the componentResized(ComponentEvent) method needs implementing for this task.

buttonContainer.addComponentListener(new ComponentListener() {
    @Override
    public void componentResized(ComponentEvent ce) { // just implementing this
        fixComponentWidths(buttonContainer, buttons, BUTTON_HEIGHT);
        // where buttonContainer is a JPanel,
        // buttons is a List of JButtons
        // BUTTON_HEIGHT, well the height of the button!
    }

    @Override
    public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent ce) { // not needed
    }

    @Override
    public void componentShown(ComponentEvent ce) { // not needed
    }

    @Override
    public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent ce) { // not needed
    }
});

That is all that is needed. But for completeness here's a small example, based on the author's question, followed by a subclass of JPanel which uses a BoxLayout that can be used to resolve this behavior for both BoxLayout.X_AXIS and BoxLayout.Y_AXIS.

Complete example

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.ComponentEvent;
import java.awt.event.ComponentListener;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import javax.swing.BoxLayout;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class FillExample extends JFrame {

    private static final int FRAMEL_DEFAULT_WIDTH = 700;
    private static final int FRAME_DEFAULT_HEIGHT = 400;

    private static final int BUTTON_HEIGHT = Integer.MAX_VALUE;

    private final List<JButton> buttons;

    public FillExample() {
        buttons = new ArrayList<>();
    }

    public void createAndShow() {
        setTitle("Fill Example");
        setSize(FRAMEL_DEFAULT_WIDTH, FRAME_DEFAULT_HEIGHT);

        final JPanel buttonContainer = new JPanel();
        buttonContainer.setLayout(new BoxLayout(buttonContainer, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));

        for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
            addButtons(buttonContainer);
        }

        getContentPane().add(buttonContainer);

        buttonContainer.addComponentListener(new ComponentListener() {
            @Override
            public void componentResized(ComponentEvent ce) {
                fixComponentWidths(buttonContainer, buttons, BUTTON_HEIGHT);
            }

            @Override
            public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent ce) {
            }

            @Override
            public void componentShown(ComponentEvent ce) {
            }

            @Override
            public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent ce) {
            }
        });

        setVisible(true);
    }

    private static void fixComponentWidths(Component container, List<? extends Component> componentList, int componentHeight) {
        if (!componentList.isEmpty()) {
            int baseComponentWidth = container.getWidth() / componentList.size();
            int remainder = container.getWidth() % componentList.size();
            for (int i = 0; i < componentList.size(); i++) {
                int componentWidth = baseComponentWidth;
                if (i < remainder) {
                    componentWidth++;
                }
                componentList.get(i).setMaximumSize(new Dimension(componentWidth, componentHeight));
            }
            container.revalidate();
        }
    }

    private void addButtons(JComponent component) {
        Color[] colorA = {Color.RED, Color.BLUE, Color.BLACK, Color.GREEN};
        for (Color c : colorA) {
            JButton button = createButton(c);
            buttons.add(button);
            component.add(button);
        }
    }

    private static JButton createButton(Color color) {
        JButton button = new JButton();
        button.setBackground(color);
        button.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE, BUTTON_HEIGHT));
        return button;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new FillExample().createAndShow();
            }
        });
    }

}

FillBoxLayoutPanel

This small class can be used to quickly resolve this spacing issue for both BoxLayout.X_AXIS and BoxLayout.Y_AXIS. Note, that the class create the BoxLayout and the LayoutManager cannot be changed.

Component objects can be added to the panel using add(Component comp) and add(Component comp, int index). Note, not all add methods are overridden, the class should be used carefully.

import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.LayoutManager;
import java.awt.event.ComponentEvent;
import java.awt.event.ComponentListener;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import javax.swing.BoxLayout;
import javax.swing.JPanel;

public class FillBoxLayoutPanel extends JPanel {

    public static final int X_AXIS = BoxLayout.X_AXIS;
    public static final int Y_AXIS = BoxLayout.Y_AXIS;

    private final List<Component> components;

    private final int direction;
    private boolean layoutSet;

    public FillBoxLayoutPanel(int direction) {
        components = new ArrayList<>();
        this.direction = direction;
        setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, direction));
        layoutSet = true;
        addComponentListener(new ComponentListener() {
            @Override
            public void componentResized(ComponentEvent ce) {
                adjustComponents();
            }

            @Override
            public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent ce) {
            }

            @Override
            public void componentShown(ComponentEvent ce) {
            }

            @Override
            public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent ce) {
            }
        });
    }

    @Override
    public void setLayout(LayoutManager mgr) {
        if (layoutSet) {
            throw new UnsupportedOperationException("FillPanel's layout manager cannot be changed.");
        } else {
            super.setLayout(mgr);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Component add(Component comp) {
        comp = super.add(comp);
        components.add(comp);
        return comp;
    }

    @Override
    public Component add(Component comp, int i) {
        comp = super.add(comp, i);
        components.add(i, comp);
        return comp;
    }

    private void adjustComponents() {            
        if (!components.isEmpty()) {
            int size = direction == X_AXIS ? getWidth() : getHeight();
            int baseComponentSize = size / components.size();
            int remainder = size % components.size();

            for (int i = 0; i < components.size(); i++) {
                int componentSize = baseComponentSize;
                if (i < remainder) {
                    componentSize++;
                }
                Dimension dimension;
                if (direction == X_AXIS) {
                    dimension = new Dimension(componentSize, components.get(i).getHeight());
                } else {                    
                    dimension = new Dimension(components.get(i).getWidth(), componentSize);
                }
                components.get(i).setMaximumSize(dimension);
            }
            revalidate();
        }
    }

}

Answer 2

I think the problem is because the Layouts when all components have same settings it tries to give each component same space. So that little extra space can't be divided up equally to each component they leave it out.

Maybe you can use the Relative Layout.

It allows you to easily make each component the same size.

It then has a property that allows you to determine how extra pixels should be allocated if needed.