Components' position and size

Question

I've noticed that awt and swing components have methods which are supposed to resize and move them directly, without using LayoutManagers (methods like setX(), setY(), setLocation(), setSize(), reshape() etc).
But when I try to use them, the component always stays the same. Let's say I have a single component on a Frame, so it takes all the available space. I don't seem to be able to resize and then move it using the above methods.
Or do I miss something? Is there any way that I could lay my components out on a container just by using these methods, or do I need to do something for them to work?
Thanks in advance. =D

Answer 1

Hirsch wrote:
But why is that, that
Container.setLayout(null);
should never be used?I suppose that absolute statements should never be made. null layout has its place (in fact, some here such as navy coder use it exclusively), but many if not most of us prefer to use the layout managers for many reasons. They automate the placement of your components, they make it much easier to create resizeable applications, they make it safer to create GUIs that will be used in multiple environments where different screen sizes are possible.
For example, suppose you create a program that displays JRadioButtons like so:
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import javax.swing.ButtonGroup;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JRadioButton;
public class FuPanel2
  private static void createAndShowUI()
    String radioLabels[] =
      "Fubar", "Snafu", "Bohica"
    // create a JPanel for jradiobuttons and have it use gridlayout
    JPanel radioPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1, 5, 5));
    ButtonGroup btnGrp = new ButtonGroup();
    for (int i = 0; i < radioLabels.length; i++)
      JRadioButton rBtn = new JRadioButton(radioLabels);
btnGrp.add(rBtn);
radioPanel.add(rBtn);
JFrame frame = new JFrame("FuPanel2");
frame.getContentPane().add(radioPanel);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
public static void main(String[] args)
java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable()
public void run()
createAndShowUI();
You'll notice that the JPanel that holds the JRadioButtons uses the GridLayout. If I want to add another JRadioButton, "Tarfu", all I have to do is add the String to the array and another radiobutton is produced and placed in the right location. I don't have to worry about setting sizes or positions of anything as it's all done for me:
    String radioLabels[] =
      "Fubar", "Snafu", "Bohica", "Tarfu" // have added "Tarfu"
    };Edited by: Encephalopathic on Aug 10, 2008 4:58 AM