How do I get a JTable header to display entire column names instead of shortening them?

Question

I've a JTable that I fill with a class that extends AbstractTableModel. The problem is that the columns are too short to display the column name. I've turned off Jtable AutoResizeMode property, but shortening still occurs. How do I solve this?

Subterranean

Answer 1

Setting off autoresizemode only prevent the JTable's coumns to be resized. To force a particular width retrieve the table column model:

TableColumn column = jtable.getColumnModel().getColumn(col_num);

and set the desired width:

column.setPreferredWidth(width);

Alesiaalessandra

that's only half of the solution: the other half is to find out what the "desired width" is ;) see Rob's answer – Zadazadack

Answer 2

You can use the Table Column Adjuster to adjust the column widths based on the header text.

The getColumnHeaderWidth(...) shows how to calculate the actual width using the header text and renderer.

Tureen

Answer 3

there are two ways

1) calculate PreferredSize from TableColumn (by defalut returns JLabel), there are 3-4 correct ways how to determine displayed TextLenght in pixex (please add plus 5-8 pixes moreover)

2) setPreferredSize directly, e.g. TableColumn#setPreferredSize

Cissie

randomly adding the one or other pixel or dollar or apple ;-) Have to admit, that SwingX' ColumnFactory does exactly the same, adding a magic "default margin" – Zadazadack