Alignment of JList elements

Question

Hi folks,
I've got a JList wrapped in a JScrollPane (which itself is the central component of a JPanel with BorderLayout). JDK version is 1.3.1_01
I've written my own Renderer because there are Icons to display in one of the "columns".
The Problem is: I want the list elements to be left aligned when the list is displayed. But they always appear centered and to the left/right of the list the list background is visible.
Any suggestions?
Thanx in advance, X

Answer 1

That is only helpful for aligning the compnents inside a label, but my cell returned by the renderer is a JPanel containing labels.
Nevertheless zhank you.
But I suspect that the problem lies within my renderer class.
Here's the code:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class MyListCellRenderer implements ListCellRenderer {
private DefaultListModel model;
private int prefIconLabelSize = 0;
private int prefNameLabelSize = 0;
private int prefSizeLabelSize = 0;
private int prefDateLabelSize = 0;
private final int labelHeight = 22;
public MyListCellRenderer(DefaultListModel model) {
this.model = model;
public Component getListCellRendererComponent(
final JList list, final Object value, final int index, final boolean isSelected,
final boolean cellHasFocus) {
JPanel dop = this.initDataObjectPanel(value);
if (isSelected) {
dop.setBackground(list.getSelectionBackground());
//dop.setForeground(list.getSelectionForeground());
else {
dop.setBackground(list.getBackground());
//dop.setForeground(list.getForeground());
return dop;
private JPanel initDataObjectPanel(Object value) {
JPanel dop = new JPanel();
DataObject dobj = (DataObject)value;
JLabel iconlabel = new JLabel(dobj.getDataObjectIcon());
iconlabel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(prefIconLabelSize, labelHeight));
iconlabel.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);
dop.add(iconlabel);
JLabel namelabel = new JLabel(dobj.getDataObjectName());
namelabel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(prefNameLabelSize + 10, labelHeight));
namelabel.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.LEFT);
dop.add(namelabel);
JLabel sizelabel = new JLabel(dobj.getDataObjectSize());
sizelabel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(prefSizeLabelSize + 10, labelHeight));
sizelabel.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.RIGHT);
dop.add(sizelabel);
JLabel datelabel = new JLabel(dobj.getDataObjectModifiedDate());
datelabel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(prefDateLabelSize + 10, labelHeight));
datelabel.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);
dop.add(datelabel);
return dop;
public void determinePreferredLabelSizes() {
for (int i = 0; i < model.getSize(); i++) {
DataObject dobj = (DataObject)model.get(i);
JLabel testlabel = new JLabel(dobj.getDataObjectIcon());
if (testlabel.getPreferredSize().width > prefIconLabelSize) {
prefIconLabelSize = testlabel.getPreferredSize().width;
testlabel = new JLabel(dobj.getDataObjectName());
if (testlabel.getPreferredSize().width > prefNameLabelSize) {
prefNameLabelSize = testlabel.getPreferredSize().width;
testlabel = new JLabel(dobj.getDataObjectSize());
if (testlabel.getPreferredSize().width > prefSizeLabelSize) {
prefSizeLabelSize = testlabel.getPreferredSize().width;
testlabel = new JLabel(dobj.getDataObjectModifiedDate());
if (testlabel.getPreferredSize().width > prefDateLabelSize) {
prefDateLabelSize = testlabel.getPreferredSize().width;
}