How can I save JTable column order and widths?

Question

Hello,
I'm trying to find a way to save the current column order and widths in a JTable, so that the next time the same user runs the app I can use these same settings. Ideally I'd like to save this locally on the user's PC. I think it could probably be done with serialization, but hopefully there's a simple solution. Anyone else already tackled this?

Answer 1

The JTableHeader class can give you all the information you through the various TableColumns.
I simply save all this information to a properties file which looks somthing like this
# Column Information
total=3
column0=Names,120
column1=Dates,140
column2=Status,110This can then be read back using a java.util..Properties object. With this information you'll need to manually set the properties of each TableColumn and use the column model to move the columns to the right position ie
cmodel.moveColumn(0,2); // move column 0 to positon 2This requires a little bit more coding to properly do the comparism of the column names with those in the properties object.
Tip: it is always easier to use the above format, ie column0, column1, column2, etc, so that you can easily use a loop to access the information form the properties object ie
int total  = Integer.parseInt( prop.getProperty("total") );
for(int i = 0; i < total; i++) {
   String cname = prop.getProperty("column" + i);
    /// the rest of the TableColumn formatting could go here
}All the best.
ICE