How can I select multiple cells in tableview with javafx only by mouse?

Question

I have an application with a tableview in javafx and i want to select multiple cells only by mouse (something like the selection which exists in excel).I tried with setOnMouseDragged but i cant'n do something because the selection returns only the cell from where the selection started.Can someone help me?

Answer 1

For mouse drag events to propagate to nodes other than the node in which the drag initiated, you need to activate a "full press-drag-release gesture" by calling startFullDrag(...) on the initial node. (See the Javadocs for MouseEvent and MouseDragEvent for details.) Then you can register for MouseDragEvents on the table cells in order to receive and process those events.
Here's a simple example: the UI is not supposed to be ideal but it will give you the idea.
import java.util.Arrays;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleStringProperty;
import javafx.collections.FXCollections;
import javafx.collections.ObservableList;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.geometry.Insets;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.SelectionMode;
import javafx.scene.control.TableCell;
import javafx.scene.control.TableColumn;
import javafx.scene.control.TableView;
import javafx.scene.control.cell.PropertyValueFactory;
import javafx.scene.input.MouseDragEvent;
import javafx.scene.input.MouseEvent;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.util.Callback;
public class DragSelectionTable extends Application {
    private TableView<Person> table = new TableView<Person>();
    private final ObservableList<Person> data =
        FXCollections.observableArrayList(
            new Person("Jacob", "Smith", "[email protected]"),
            new Person("Isabella", "Johnson", "[email protected]"),
            new Person("Ethan", "Williams", "[email protected]"),
            new Person("Emma", "Jones", "[email protected]"),
            new Person("Michael", "Brown", "[email protected]")
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) {
        Scene scene = new Scene(new Group());
        stage.setTitle("Table View Sample");
        stage.setWidth(450);
        stage.setHeight(500);
        final Label label = new Label("Address Book");
        label.setFont(new Font("Arial", 20));
        table.setEditable(true);
        TableColumn<Person, String> firstNameCol = new TableColumn<>("First Name");
        firstNameCol.setMinWidth(100);
        firstNameCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("firstName"));
        TableColumn<Person, String> lastNameCol = new TableColumn<>("Last Name");
        lastNameCol.setMinWidth(100);
        lastNameCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("lastName"));
        TableColumn<Person, String> emailCol = new TableColumn<>("Email");
        emailCol.setMinWidth(200);
        emailCol.setCellValueFactory(
                new PropertyValueFactory<Person, String>("email"));
        final Callback<TableColumn<Person, String>, TableCell<Person, String>> cellFactory = new DragSelectionCellFactory();
        firstNameCol.setCellFactory(cellFactory);
        lastNameCol.setCellFactory(cellFactory);
        emailCol.setCellFactory(cellFactory);
        table.setItems(data);
        table.getColumns().addAll(Arrays.asList(firstNameCol, lastNameCol, emailCol));
        table.getSelectionModel().setCellSelectionEnabled(true);
        table.getSelectionModel().setSelectionMode(SelectionMode.MULTIPLE);
        final VBox vbox = new VBox();
        vbox.setSpacing(5);
        vbox.setPadding(new Insets(10, 0, 0, 10));
        vbox.getChildren().addAll(label, table);
        ((Group) scene.getRoot()).getChildren().addAll(vbox);
        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();
    public static class DragSelectionCell extends TableCell<Person, String> {
        public DragSelectionCell() {
            setOnDragDetected(new EventHandler<MouseEvent>() {
                @Override
                public void handle(MouseEvent event) {
                    startFullDrag();
                    getTableColumn().getTableView().getSelectionModel().select(getIndex(), getTableColumn());
            setOnMouseDragEntered(new EventHandler<MouseDragEvent>() {
                @Override
                public void handle(MouseDragEvent event) {
                    getTableColumn().getTableView().getSelectionModel().select(getIndex(), getTableColumn());
        @Override
        public void updateItem(String item, boolean empty) {
            super.updateItem(item, empty);
            if (empty) {
                setText(null);
            } else {
                setText(item);
    public static class DragSelectionCellFactory implements Callback<TableColumn<Person, String>, TableCell<Person, String>> {
        @Override
        public TableCell<Person, String> call(final TableColumn<Person, String> col) {         
            return new DragSelectionCell();
    public static class Person {
        private final SimpleStringProperty firstName;
        private final SimpleStringProperty lastName;
        private final SimpleStringProperty email;
        private Person(String fName, String lName, String email) {
            this.firstName = new SimpleStringProperty(fName);
            this.lastName = new SimpleStringProperty(lName);
            this.email = new SimpleStringProperty(email);
        public String getFirstName() {
            return firstName.get();
        public void setFirstName(String fName) {
            firstName.set(fName);
        public String getLastName() {
            return lastName.get();
        public void setLastName(String fName) {
            lastName.set(fName);
        public String getEmail() {
            return email.get();
        public void setEmail(String fName) {
            email.set(fName);