How to place a JPanel at the center of another JPanel?

Question

Can anyone tell me how to place a JPanel inside another JPanel? The first JPanel consists of three JPanels each consisting of a label&textfield and are placed using BoxLayout. The second JPanel is a big blank screen. So, i would like to put the first JPanel at the center of second JPanel(horizontally & vertically). The problem is that i don't have any other component. So,if i try to use FlowLayout, i am able to put it at the center(horizontally, not vertically) only on the top edge. I tried to use BoxLayout. But, i couldn't(as i don't have any other elements). I tried to create some blank elements. But, they are messing up the elements of my JPanel. Any cluesssssssss??????????

Answer 1

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class CenteredLayout
    private JPanel getPanel()
        GridBagLayout gridbag = new GridBagLayout();
        GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
        gbc.insets = new Insets(2,2,2,2);
        JPanel p = new JPanel(gridbag);
        addComponents(new JLabel("label 1"), new JTextField(8), p, gbc);
        addComponents(new JLabel("label 2"), new JTextField(8), p, gbc);
        addComponents(new JLabel("label 3"), new JTextField(8), p, gbc);
        JPanel panel = new JPanel(gridbag);
        panel.setBackground(Color.pink);
        gbc.anchor = GridBagConstraints.CENTER;
        gbc.insets = new Insets(0,0,0,0);
        panel.add(p, gbc);
        return panel;
    private void addComponents(Component c1, Component c2, Container c,
                               GridBagConstraints gbc)
        gbc.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
        gbc.gridwidth = GridBagConstraints.RELATIVE;
        c.add(c1, gbc);
        gbc.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
        gbc.gridwidth = GridBagConstraints.REMAINDER;
        c.add(c2, gbc);
    public static void main(String[] args)
        JFrame f = new JFrame();
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.getContentPane().add(new CenteredLayout().getPanel());
        f.setSize(400,400);
        f.setLocation(200,200);
        f.setVisible(true);
}