Stop JTextArea from expanding

Question

I'm trying to read information off of a data file and process it into a JTextArea for an about file for a term project that I'm making. The problem is that when I do scanner.nextLine() it's expanding the text area to fit the text and what I wanted was it to keep the size of the text area the same and if it runs out of space on the current line to start on the

    if(event.getSource() == forward)
    {
        text.setText(s.nextLine());
    }

The text area is setup like this:

     text = new JTextArea(11, 30); 

Basically what I want to know is if there's a method that text area offers (I looked) that relocates space to the next line if the current is full. I can most likely just edit the data file if there isn't a way to do it in the text area.

Answer 1

Place the JTextArea within a JScrollPane and add the scroll pane to your container instead

text = new JTextArea(11, 30);
JScrollPane scrollpane = new JScrollPane(text);
//...
add(scrollpane);

See How to use Scroll Panes for more details

This will prevent the scroll pane from growing in the current container.

Also check out JTextArea#setLineWrap and JTextArea#setWrapStyleWord which will effect how the component treats text that would exceed the viewable width.

See How to use Text Areas for more details