Is there a "word wrap" property for JLabel?

Asked 22/10, 2011 at 18:30 Answered 20/3, 2021 at 13:13

I am displaying some text in a JLabel. Basically I am generating that text dynamically, and then I apply some HTML tags (e.g., BR and B) to format the text. Finally I assign this formatted text to my JLabel.

Now I want my Jlabel to automatically wrap the text to the next line when it reaches the end of screen, like the "Word Wrap" feature in Note Pad.

How can I do that?

Survivor answered 22/10, 2011 at 18:30 Comment(6)

Just FYI, Andrew's answer is the best. – Mendelson 22/10, 2011 at 19:2

@HovercraftFullOfEels <VBG>I just knew the screen shots would make the difference!</VBG> – Muddy 22/10, 2011 at 19:6

Yeah, I've got to start doing that a bit more, but still it helps to have the right answer. I suppose I should learn a bit of HTML and styles... – Mendelson 22/10, 2011 at 19:11

@AndrewThompson They're pretty cool, but make you answer slower! :) – Beaton 22/10, 2011 at 19:20

@HovercraftFullOfEels +1 for the 2nd sentence, and not just you, but any server side developer using any language. It astounds me how little that (e.g.) servlet developers understand about the HTML their apps. are spewing out. As to the first.. some might consider my incessant addition of images to be visual 'noise'. – Muddy 22/10, 2011 at 19:22

@Beaton True, so I use a trick. Post the source 1st, then add the images in an edit. Of course, that didn't help here, since it took me longer to write the (v. short) source than it took for 2 answers and a tick. ;) – Muddy 22/10, 2011 at 19:25

Should work if you wrap the text in <html>...</html>

UPDATE: You should probably set maximum size, too, then.

Beaton answered 22/10, 2011 at 18:35 Comment(9)

I am already wraping the text in HTML e.g <html>some text some text </html> Do i need to use some specific HTML Tag for wraping – Survivor 22/10, 2011 at 18:44

try calling setMaximumSize on that JLabel – Beaton 22/10, 2011 at 18:47

"<html>some text " Web developers are turning over in their graves. Use styles. – Muddy 22/10, 2011 at 18:53

@AndrewThompson yeah, what about JS. Or Flash! :) – Beaton 22/10, 2011 at 18:58

There's a lot of that going around these days! :) – Mendelson 22/10, 2011 at 18:58

I say, add support for Java applets into Swing components' html text. that would be fun! – Beaton 22/10, 2011 at 18:59

"I say, add support for Java applets into Swing components' html text." See Appleteer - it uses a JEditorPane. "that would be fun!" No, it's not. Trust me. ;) – Muddy 22/10, 2011 at 19:2

@Jame: FYI, Netbeans has nothing to do with your question - it is just the IDE. Java is the main subject of your question... – Oglethorpe 22/10, 2011 at 19:3

I just imagined Flash running inside a JLabel and it made me almost ROFL. – Beaton 22/10, 2011 at 19:8

A width can be set for the body using HTML styles (CSS). This in turn will determine the number of lines to render and, from that, the preferred height of the label.

Setting the width in CSS avoids the need to compute where line breaks should occur in (or the best size of) the label.

import javax.swing.*;

public class FixedWidthLabel {

    public static void main(String[] srgs) {
        final String s = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean eu nulla urna. Donec sit amet risus nisl, a porta enim. Quisque luctus, ligula eu scelerisque gravida, tellus quam vestibulum urna, ut aliquet sapien purus sed erat. Pellentesque consequat vehicula magna, eu aliquam magna interdum porttitor. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Sed sollicitudin sapien non leo tempus lobortis. Morbi semper auctor ipsum, a semper quam elementum a. Aliquam eget sem metus.";
        final String html = "<html><body style='width: %1spx'>%1s";

        Runnable r = () -> {
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(
                    null, String.format(html, 200, s));
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(
                    null, String.format(html, 300, s));
        };
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(r);
    }
}

enter image description here

Muddy answered 22/10, 2011 at 18:49 Comment(6)

Yeah, this one's the winner. :) – Mendelson 22/10, 2011 at 18:57

+1 and if you need to have a variable width label you can use use "100%" instead of "200px" (assuming your GUI uses an appropriate layout manager). – Sol 22/10, 2011 at 21:13

@SteveCohen If this were HTML for a browser, yes. This is merely HTML for Swing components and we can make many shortcuts. One advantage of this is that it allows us to (easily) dynamically add new content to the HTML. E.G. label.setText( label.getText() + "<li>New list bullet" ); – Muddy 24/3, 2012 at 15:41

Just noticed that JLabel with <html> in them look differently on Vista and 7 with native L&F: trello-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/51b5f6a477d99db360005655/… – Dissuasive 14/6, 2014 at 10:57

Remember that certain characters need to be escaped or turned into their HTML equivalents. – Cankerworm 8/9, 2014 at 13:9

@ChrisDennett Yes you're right, something to be aware of and look out for. – Muddy 8/9, 2014 at 13:16