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From: Knute Johnson <nospam@knutejohnson.com>
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Subject: Re: Aligned elements in a JComboBox
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Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 09:49:27 -0700
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On 05/17/2011 09:42 AM, Thomas Richter wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> the problem at hand is how to align individual components that are part
> of a JComboBox.
>
> The JComboBox uses a custom Renderer to render its contents, and each
> content consists of two strings of variable size, arranged in a JPanel.
> The getListCellRendererComponent() of the renderer now returns the
> JPanel containing the two components.
>
> So far, so good. This works.
>
> The problem is that the sizes of the two components differ througout the
> items of the JComboBox, which means that the elements within the JList
> in the JCombobox (or rather, its JList rendering the non-editable items)
> are not aligned to each other. Of course they can't, they are individual
> JPanels each with its own layout manager, and thus do not know anything
> on each other.
>
> Needless to say, this looks visually very unattractive.
>
> So what can I do about this? I have a JComboBox with a very complex
> layout and the requirement that each entry necessarily is a pair of data
> types of various sizes. How can I make the elements be aware of each
> other and have a common layout for all of them?
>
> Illustration:
>
> +----------------------------------------------+
> | foofoo | barbarbarbarbarbarbarbar |
> +----------------------------------------------+
> | foofoofoofoofoofoofoo | bar |
> +----------------------------------------------+
>
> This is how the JComboBox currently renders. But I want it
> laid out such that the separator between the two elements forming one
> entry of it are underneath each other.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Greetings,
> Thomas

Figure out the largest size of your data in each field and lay out all 
the elements with the same width and layout manager.

-- 

Knute Johnson
s/knute/nospam/