How to set initial column widths for a table

Question

What I'd like to do is to control the initial column widths for a table.
I'm building the table by using a class which extends AbstractTableModel. This class takes care of setting the headers and reading the data for the table.
If I do the following:
VarTableModel vtm = new VarTableModel(vi);
JTable jt = new JTable(vtm);
JScrollPane jsp = new JScrollPane(jt);
frame.getContentPane().add(jsp);
frame.setVisible(true);
I will see a table in my window. The widths of the columns are equal and are a function of the horizontal dimension of the window.
I have tried to set the width of a column by doing the following:
TableColumn aColumn;
aColumn = jt.getColumn(vtm.getColumnName(0));
aColumn.setWidth(40);
But this has no effect on what gets displayed. I can force the widths that I want by using 'setMaxWidth' but this has the unfortunate side effect of not allowing the user to make the column wider if they want.
What I'd like is a way to specify the widths of the columns when initially displayed and then let the user adjust to their liking.
I'm sure that there is a way to do this, but I don't seem to understand where to intervene in the process to produce the effect that I want.
Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Table.setAutoResizeMode(JTable.AUTO_RESIZE_OFF);
add this line and try ur codeThanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to do the trick. Here is an abbreviated segment of my code:
vtm = new VarTableModel(vi);
JTable jt = new JTable(vtm);
// we want a horizontal scrollbar, so turn resizing off
// and we want to control column widths
jt.setAutoResizeMode(JTable.AUTO_RESIZE_OFF);
aColumn = jt.getColumn(vtm.getColumnName(0));
aColumn.setWidth(40);
. // same kind of thing for each column
aColumn = jt.getColumn(vtm.getColumnName(4));
aColumn.setWidth(400);
JScrollPane jsp = new JScrollPane(jt);
frame.getContentPane().add(jsp);
frame.setVisible(true);
If I do the above, the table gets displayed with each of the five columns the exact same width. So, the sizing of the columns is happening somewhere else despite turning auto resizing off.
Where is that occurring and how can I intervene so that I can control the widths of the columns on initial display and still allow the user to adjust the widths if they so choose?