Gridbag layout positions

Question

Hello, I am creating a gui with various swing objects. I put a grouping of various objects within some panels as to allow for simpler layout. The problem however is spaning a jpanel over 2 rows.
basically i want one panel on the left that spans 2 rows, and two panels that span one row each but are placed horizontally to the first panel. followed by 3 panels places horizontally on a 3rd row. when i try to set gridheigh=2 i get weirdness
package javaiq3; 
/** Iq3GUI.java
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Iq3GUI extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
/* main window essential objects */
  protected JFrame frame;  // main window
  private JPanel panel;  // content panel for main window
  private GridBagLayout gridbag = new GridBagLayout(); // layout object for main window
   * constructor
   * @param title Main window title
  public Iq3GUI(String title){
    //initializes the main window, its layout and panels
    frame = new JFrame(title); // initializes main window
    frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { // window listener
      // exits program when window is closed
      public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {System.exit(0);}
    GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints(); // constraints
    GridBagConstraints subc = new GridBagConstraints(); // constraints
    panel = new JPanel();
    panel.setLayout(gridbag);
    setLookAndFeel("com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel");
/**** menu bar ****/
    JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
    frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
    JMenu menu = new JMenu("File");
    menu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
    menu.getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleDescription("File menu");
    menuBar.add(menu);
/**** end: menu bar ****/
/**** type radio buttons ****/
    JRadioButton[] typeRButton = new JRadioButton[2];
    typeRButton[0]=new JRadioButton("Life");
    typeRButton[1]=new JRadioButton("Crit");
    JPanel typeRButtonPanel = new JPanel(); // panel for radio buttons
    typeRButtonPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    typeRButtonPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Type:")); // sets border
    ButtonGroup typeGroup = new ButtonGroup(); // radio button group
    for(int x=0;x<typeRButton.length;x++){ // groups radio buttons together
        typeGroup.add(typeRButton[x]);
    typeRButtonPanel.add(typeRButton[0],BorderLayout.CENTER); // adds them to panel
    typeRButtonPanel.add(typeRButton[1],BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    c.insets = new Insets(15,15,0,0);
    c.gridx=0; c.gridy=0; c.ipady=0; c.gridwidth=1; gridbag.setConstraints(typeRButtonPanel, c);
    panel.add(typeRButtonPanel); // adds radio button panel to main panel
/**** end: type radio buttons ****/
/**** company combo box ****/
    JComboBox companyComboBox = new JComboBox();
    JPanel companyComboBoxPanel = new JPanel();
    companyComboBox.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300,18));
    companyComboBoxPanel.setLayout(gridbag);
    subc.insets = new Insets(-2,5,2,5); gridbag.setConstraints(companyComboBox, subc);
    companyComboBoxPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Company:"));
    companyComboBoxPanel.add(companyComboBox);
    c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
    c.gridx=1; c.gridy=0; c.ipadx=0; gridbag.setConstraints(companyComboBoxPanel, c);
    panel.add(companyComboBoxPanel);
/****  end: company combo box ****/
/**** product combo box ****/
    JComboBox productComboBox = new JComboBox();
    JPanel productComboBoxPanel = new JPanel();
    productComboBox.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300,18));
    productComboBoxPanel.setLayout(gridbag);
    subc.insets = new Insets(-2,5,2,5); gridbag.setConstraints(productComboBox, subc);
    productComboBoxPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Product:"));
    productComboBoxPanel.add(productComboBox);
    c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
    c.gridx=1; c.gridy=2; c.ipady=0; gridbag.setConstraints(productComboBoxPanel, c);
    panel.add(productComboBoxPanel);
/****  end: product combo box ****/
/**** type sex radio buttons ****/
    JRadioButton[] sexRButton = new JRadioButton[2];
    sexRButton[0]=new JRadioButton("Male");
    sexRButton[1]=new JRadioButton("Female");
    JPanel sexRButtonPanel = new JPanel(); // panel for radio buttons
    sexRButtonPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    sexRButtonPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Sex:")); // sets border
    ButtonGroup sexGroup = new ButtonGroup(); // radio button group
    for(int x=0;x<sexRButton.length;x++){ // groups radio buttons together
        sexGroup.add(sexRButton[x]);
     sexRButtonPanel.add(sexRButton[0],BorderLayout.CENTER); // adds them to panel
     sexRButtonPanel.add(sexRButton[1],BorderLayout.SOUTH);
     c.gridx=0; c.gridy=3; c.ipady=0; gridbag.setConstraints(sexRButtonPanel, c);
     panel.add(sexRButtonPanel); // adds radio button panel to main panel
/**** end: sex radio buttons ****/
/**** smoker check box/combo box ****/
    JCheckBox smokerRButton = new JCheckBox("No");
    JComboBox smokerComboBox = new JComboBox();
    smokerComboBox.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,18));
    JPanel smokerPanel = new JPanel();
    smokerPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    smokerPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Smoker:"));
    smokerPanel.add(smokerRButton,BorderLayout.CENTER);
    smokerPanel.add(smokerComboBox,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    c.gridx=1; c.gridy=3; c.ipady=0; gridbag.setConstraints(smokerPanel, c);
    panel.add(smokerPanel);
/**** end: smoker check box/combo box ****/  
/**** waiver radio buttons ****/
    JRadioButton[] waiverRButton = new JRadioButton[2];
    waiverRButton[0]=new JRadioButton("Yes");
    waiverRButton[1]=new JRadioButton("No");
    JPanel waiverRButtonPanel = new JPanel(); // panel for radio buttons
    waiverRButtonPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    waiverRButtonPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Waiver:")); // sets border
    ButtonGroup waiverGroup = new ButtonGroup(); // radio button group
    for(int x=0;x<waiverRButton.length;x++){ // groups radio buttons together
        waiverGroup.add(waiverRButton[x]);
     waiverRButtonPanel.add(waiverRButton[0],BorderLayout.CENTER); // adds them to panel
     waiverRButtonPanel.add(waiverRButton[1],BorderLayout.SOUTH);
     c.gridx=2; c.gridy=3; c.ipady=0; gridbag.setConstraints(waiverRButtonPanel, c);
     panel.add(waiverRButtonPanel); // adds radio button panel to main panel
/**** end: type radio buttons ****/
/**** main gui properties ****/
  // Dimension screenDim = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize(); //screen dimensions
  //  Rectangle frameDim = frame.getBounds(); // frame boundries
  //  frame.setLocation((screenDim.width - frameDim.width) / 4,(screenDim.height - frameDim.height) / 4);//sets frame's location to center screen
  //  frame.setSize(600,100);
    frame.setContentPane(panel); frame.pack();
    frame.setVisible(true);
/**** end: main gui properties ****/
   * setLookAndFeel
   * Sets the look and feel of the application, if it cannot be set to the
   * user defined one, sets the default java
   * @param feel Stores the look and feel string
  public void setLookAndFeel(String feel){
     try { // sets the GUI style to the parameter type
          UIManager.setLookAndFeel(feel);
      } catch (Exception e) {
         try{
           UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getCrossPlatformLookAndFeelClassName());
         catch (Exception e2){ // if default java one cannot be set, exits program
            System.err.println(e2.getMessage());
            System.exit(0);
   * errorBox
   * Displays a JDialog box with an ok button, programmer defined message
   * and a warning icon
   * @param message Programmer defined message
  public void errorBox(String message){
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(frame,message,"Error",JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
    System.exit(0);
* actionPerformed
* Performs action sent to by action listener
* @param e Action object
  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
    System.out.println("Click");
* Main
* Test method
* @param args Does nothing
public static void main(String[] args){
    Iq3GUI heh = new Iq3GUI("IQ3");
}

Answer 1

Wow. That's some ugly code. You might want to work on coding conventions a bit.
The reason books provide information in paragraphs is to give the eye a rest and the brain time to process the information (a brain is only 8 MHz -- no kidding). Your code should do the same. If 80% of effort goes into maintaining code, you'll help yourself (and potential coworkers) by coding neatly so that things are easy to understand at a glance without dealing with a lot of visual clutter.
1) Try to put comments on their own lines instead of whacking them onto the end of a line of code.
2) Include spaces between code segments that are related tasks -- think of them as "virtual blocks" (since they're not enclosed in braces). Think about the paragraph analogy again. A paragraph groups related sentences. Let your code do the same.
3) Never, ever jam multiple statements into a single line of code. It's a huge pain in the ass to read. While the compiler doesn't care about whitespace, human beings do.
4) When working with GridBagLayout, add all your components in the same part of your class file. By doing so, when you need to alter the layout, you don't have to dig through all of your code to find bits and pieces of the layout. Your project is small, but if you do this stuff for a living, you're eventually going to work on gigantic projects. My current project, for example, consists of 20,000 lines of code just for the GUI (and my project isn't even all at big).
5) Exiting a program without telling the user is laaaaame. I know you're just playing around, but now's the time to get good habits.
OK, so now that you've sat through the editorial, the quick and dirty answer is that you have to explicitly specify widths and heights in your constrains for each component, otherwise GridBagLayout's behavior becomes hard to predict.
In your code, you specify gridwidth once and never again. You know that a Constraint object is reusable, right? What you've just told GridBagLayout is "try to make everything the same width." Meanwhile, the layout is trying to respect your preferred sizes.
Please read the Java Tutorial on GridBagLayout, particularly the suggestion to sketch your layout on a piece of paper ahead of time so that you remember which constraint attributes to change. For safe measure, you might want to specify an entire set of constraints each time you lay out a component so that you won't leave out something important.
As for the background color, I just fixed it by setting a background for your main panel. Windows look and feel is lame, I guess. I always use the Java look and feel, so I haven't run into your problem before.
See my modified code below.
//package javaiq3; 
/** Iq3GUI.java
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Iq3GUI extends JFrame implements ActionListener
    protected JFrame frame;
    private JPanel panel;
    private GridBagLayout gridbag = new GridBagLayout();
    public Iq3GUI(String title)
        frame = new JFrame(title);
        frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter()
            public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e)
                System.exit(0);
        GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
        GridBagConstraints subc = new GridBagConstraints();
        panel = new JPanel();
        panel.setLayout(gridbag);
        panel.setBackground(Color.lightGray);
        setLookAndFeel("com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel");
        JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
        frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
        JMenu menu = new JMenu("File");
        menu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
        menu.getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleDescription("File menu");
        menuBar.add(menu);
        JRadioButton[] typeRButton = new JRadioButton[2];
        typeRButton[0]=new JRadioButton("Life");
        typeRButton[1]=new JRadioButton("Crit");
        JPanel typeRButtonPanel = new JPanel();
        typeRButtonPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        typeRButtonPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Type:"));
        ButtonGroup typeGroup = new ButtonGroup();
        for(int x=0;x<typeRButton.length;x++)
            typeGroup.add(typeRButton[x]);
        typeRButtonPanel.add(typeRButton[0],BorderLayout.CENTER);
        typeRButtonPanel.add(typeRButton[1],BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        c.insets = new Insets(15,15,0,0);
        c.gridx=0;
        c.gridy=0;
        c.ipady=0;
        c.gridwidth=1;
        gridbag.setConstraints(typeRButtonPanel,c);
        panel.add(typeRButtonPanel);
        JComboBox companyComboBox = new JComboBox();
        JPanel companyComboBoxPanel = new JPanel();
        companyComboBox.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300,18));
        companyComboBoxPanel.setLayout(gridbag);
        subc.insets = new Insets(-2,5,2,5);
        gridbag.setConstraints(companyComboBox, subc);
        companyComboBoxPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Company:"));
        companyComboBoxPanel.add(companyComboBox);
        c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
        c.gridx=1;
        c.gridy=0;
        c.ipadx=0;
        gridbag.setConstraints(companyComboBoxPanel, c);
        panel.add(companyComboBoxPanel);
        JComboBox productComboBox = new JComboBox();
        JPanel productComboBoxPanel = new JPanel();
        productComboBox.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300,18));
        productComboBoxPanel.setLayout(gridbag);
        subc.insets = new Insets(-2,5,2,5);
        gridbag.setConstraints(productComboBox, subc);
        productComboBoxPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Product:"));
        productComboBoxPanel.add(productComboBox);
        c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
        c.gridx=1; c.gridy=2; c.ipady=0;
        gridbag.setConstraints(productComboBoxPanel, c);
        panel.add(productComboBoxPanel);
        JRadioButton[] sexRButton = new JRadioButton[2];
        sexRButton[0]=new JRadioButton("Male");
        sexRButton[1]=new JRadioButton("Female");
        JPanel sexRButtonPanel = new JPanel();
        sexRButtonPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        sexRButtonPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Sex:"));
        ButtonGroup sexGroup = new ButtonGroup();
        for(int x=0;x<sexRButton.length;x++)
            sexGroup.add(sexRButton[x]);
        sexRButtonPanel.add(sexRButton[0],BorderLayout.CENTER);
        sexRButtonPanel.add(sexRButton[1],BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        c.gridx=0;
        c.gridy=3;
        c.ipady=0;
        gridbag.setConstraints(sexRButtonPanel,c);
        panel.add(sexRButtonPanel);
        JCheckBox smokerRButton = new JCheckBox("No");
        JComboBox smokerComboBox = new JComboBox();
        smokerComboBox.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,18));
        JPanel smokerPanel = new JPanel();
        smokerPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        smokerPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Smoker:"));
        smokerPanel.add(smokerRButton,BorderLayout.CENTER);
        smokerPanel.add(smokerComboBox,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        c.gridx=1;
        c.gridy=3;
        c.ipady=0;
        gridbag.setConstraints(smokerPanel,c);
        panel.add(smokerPanel);
        JRadioButton[] waiverRButton = new JRadioButton[2];
        waiverRButton[0]=new JRadioButton("Yes");
        waiverRButton[1]=new JRadioButton("No");
        JPanel waiverRButtonPanel = new JPanel();
        waiverRButtonPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        waiverRButtonPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Waiver:"));
        ButtonGroup waiverGroup = new ButtonGroup();
        for(int x=0;x<waiverRButton.length;x++)
            waiverGroup.add(waiverRButton[x]);
        waiverRButtonPanel.add(waiverRButton[0],BorderLayout.CENTER);
        waiverRButtonPanel.add(waiverRButton[1],BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        c.gridx=2;
        c.gridy=3;
        c.ipady=0;
        gridbag.setConstraints(waiverRButtonPanel,c);
        c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        c.gridx = 0;
        c.gridy = 0;
        c.gridwidth = 1;
        c.gridheight = 2;
        //c.weightx = 100;
        //c.weighty = 100;
        c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
        panel.add(typeRButtonPanel, c);
        c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        c.gridx = 1;
        c.gridy = 0;
        c.gridwidth = 2;
        c.gridheight = 1;
        //c.weightx = 100;
        //c.weighty = 100;
        c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
        panel.add(companyComboBoxPanel, c);
        c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        c.gridx = 1;
        c.gridy = 1;
        c.gridwidth = 2;
        c.gridheight = 1;
        //c.weightx = 100;
        //c.weighty = 100;
        c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
        panel.add(productComboBoxPanel, c);
        c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        c.gridx = 0;
        c.gridy = 3;
        c.gridwidth = 1;
        c.gridheight = 2;
        //c.weightx = 100;
        //c.weighty = 100;
        c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
        panel.add(sexRButtonPanel, c);
        c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        c.gridx = 1;
        c.gridy = 3;
        c.gridwidth = 1;
        c.gridheight = 2;
        //c.weightx = 100;
        //c.weighty = 100;
        c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
        panel.add(smokerPanel, c);
        c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        c.gridx = 2;
        c.gridy = 3;
        c.gridwidth = 1;
        c.gridheight = 2;
        //c.weightx = 100;
        //c.weighty = 100;
        c.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
        panel.add(waiverRButtonPanel, c);
        frame.setContentPane(panel);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    public void setLookAndFeel(String feel)
        try
            UIManager.setLookAndFeel(feel);
        catch(Exception e)
            try
                UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getCrossPlatformLookAndFeelClassName());
            catch(Exception e2)
                System.err.println(e2.getMessage());
                System.exit(0);
    public void errorBox(String message)
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(frame,message,"Error",JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
        System.exit(0);
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
        System.out.println("Click");
    public static void main(String[] args)
        Iq3GUI heh = new Iq3GUI("IQ3");
}