Adding JButtons to JTable

Question

Hello all,
How can I add JButtons to a JTable?
I found an article that is supposed to show you how to do just that:
http://www.devx.com/getHelpOn/10MinuteSolution/20425
I downloaded the code in the article and it works to an extent - I can see the buttons in the table but the buttons seem as if they are disabled :( Since I used this code in my application, I get the same behavior too.
Is there a bug in the code? Is there a simpler solution? What am I missing?
Raj

Answer 1

Thanks. That makes the button clickable. But now the button changes back to it's old value when you click on another cell. I suppose that's because we have 2 buttons, one for rendering and one for editing. So I added a setValueAt(Object value, int row, int column) to MyModel. This works throws class cast exception.
import java.util.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.swing.table.*;
public class ButtonInTable extends JFrame {
    JTable t=new JTable(new MyModel());
    public ButtonInTable() {
        this.getContentPane().add(new JScrollPane(t));
        this.setBounds(50,50,300,200);
        this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        t.setDefaultEditor(Object.class,new ButtonEditor());
        t.setDefaultRenderer(Object.class,new ButtonRenderer());      
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ButtonInTable buttonInTable1 = new ButtonInTable();
        buttonInTable1.show();
    class ButtonEditor extends JButton implements TableCellEditor {
        Object currentValue;
        Vector listeners=new Vector();
        public ButtonEditor() {
                        this.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                                currentValue=JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Input new value!");
                                if (currentValue!=null) {
                                    setText(currentValue.toString());
        public Component getTableCellEditorComponent(JTable table, Object value, boolean isSelected, int row, int column) {
            currentValue=value;
//            this.setText(value.toString());
            this.setText( ((JButton)value).getText() );
            return this;
        public Object getCellEditorValue() {
            return currentValue;
        public boolean isCellEditable(EventObject anEvent) {
            return true;
        public boolean shouldSelectCell(EventObject anEvent) {
            return true;
        public boolean stopCellEditing() {
            ChangeEvent ce=new ChangeEvent(this);
            for (int i=0; i<listeners.size(); i++) {
                ((CellEditorListener)listeners.get(i)).editingStopped(ce);
            return true;
        public void cancelCellEditing() {
            ChangeEvent ce=new ChangeEvent(this);
            for (int i=0; i<listeners.size(); i++) {
                ((CellEditorListener)listeners.get(i)).editingCanceled(ce);
        public void addCellEditorListener(CellEditorListener l) {
            listeners.add(l);
        public void removeCellEditorListener(CellEditorListener l) {
            listeners.remove(l);
    class ButtonRenderer extends DefaultTableCellRenderer {
        public Component getTableCellRendererComponent
                (JTable table, Object button, boolean isSelected, boolean hasFocus, int row, int column) {
            return (JButton)button;
    class OldModel extends DefaultTableModel {
        public OldModel() {
            super(new String[][]{{"1","2"},{"3","4"}},new String[] {"1","2"});
    class MyModel extends AbstractTableModel {
        private String[] titles = { "A", "B" };
        private Object[][] summaryTable =
                { new JButton("11"), new JButton("12") },
                { new JButton("21"), new JButton("22") }
        public MyModel(){
            super();
        public int getColumnCount() {
            return titles.length;
        public String getColumnName(int col) {
            return titles[col];
        public int getRowCount() {
            return summaryTable.length;
        public Object getValueAt(int row, int col) {
            return summaryTable[row][col];
        public void setValueAt(Object value, int row, int column) {
            summaryTable[row][column] = value;
            fireTableCellUpdated(row, column);
        public Class getColumnClass(int c) {
            return getValueAt(0, c).getClass();
        public boolean isCellEditable(int row, int col) {
            return true;
}