Swing: set JFrame content area size

Question

I'm trying to make a JFrame with a usable content area of exactly 500x500. If I do this...

public MyFrame() {
    super("Hello, world!");
    setSize(500,500);
}

... I get a window whose full size is 500x500, including the title bar, etc., where I really need a window whose size is something like 504x520 to account for the window border and titlebar. How can I achieve this?

Coach

Answer 1

you may try couple of things: 1 - a hack:

public MyFrame(){
 JFrame temp = new JFrame;
 temp.pack();
 Insets insets = temp.getInsets();
 temp = null;
 this.setSize(new Dimension(insets.left + insets.right + 500,
             insets.top + insets.bottom + 500));
 this.setVisible(true);
 this.setResizable(false);
}

2- or Add a JPanel to the frame's content pane and Just set the preferred/minimum size of the JPanel to 500X500, call pack()

• 2- is more portable

Breathless

Answer 2

Simply use:

public MyFrame() {
    this.getContentPane().setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 500));
    this.pack();
}

There's no need for a JPanel to be in there, if you just want to set the frame's size.

Dehaven

Answer 3

Never mind, I figured it out:

public MyFrame() {
    super("Hello, world!");

    myJPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500,500));
    add(myJPanel);
    pack();
}

Coach

In Java 5 it is actually possible to do this without another panel. See #2797275. – Danialah