Is there a way to find out how to get the index of a column?

Question

Hello,
I want to know the index of a column for example the column at the first position in a jtable is 0 so how can i get this index?
for example: the column called "surname" is index 0 but the user can move the column. So the name stays the same but the index of the column changed. I search for a method like
table.getColumnIndex("surname");

Answer 1

I think it really depends on what the OP is trying to do. I think the program
below offers up the possible choices pretty well.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.table.*;
public class TableColumnIndexDemo extends JFrame {
     private JTable table;
     private String[] names = new String[]{ "One", "Two", "Three", "Four", "Five" };
     public static void main( String args[] ) {
          SwingUtilities.invokeLater( new Runnable() {
               public void run() { new TableColumnIndexDemo(); }
     public TableColumnIndexDemo() {
          setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          DefaultTableModel model = new DefaultTableModel( names, 1 );
          table = new JTable( model );
          JButton button = new JButton( "Print indices" );
          button.addActionListener( new ActionListener() {
               public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent e ) {
                    printIndices();
          getContentPane().setLayout( new BorderLayout() );
          getContentPane().add( button, BorderLayout.NORTH );
          getContentPane().add( new JScrollPane( table ), BorderLayout.CENTER );
          getContentPane().add( new JLabel( "Move columns around then print indices" ), BorderLayout.SOUTH );
          setSize( 300, 150 );
          setVisible( true );
          printIndices();
     private void printIndices() {
          TableColumnModel columnModel = table.getColumnModel();
          TableModel model = table.getModel();
          StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
          System.out.println( "Visible order");
          for ( int k = 0; k < columnModel.getColumnCount(); k++ ) {
               if ( k > 0 ) sb.append( ", " );
               sb.append( k ).append( " " ).append( columnModel.getColumn( k ).getIdentifier() );
          System.out.println( sb );
          sb = new StringBuffer();
          System.out.println( "By name using getColumnIndex(TableModel,name)" );
          for( int k = 0; k < names.length; k++) {
               if ( k > 0 ) sb.append( ", " );
               sb.append( getColumnIndex( model, names[k] ) ).append( " " ).append( names[k] );
          System.out.println( sb );
          sb = new StringBuffer();
          System.out.println( "By name using columnModel.getColumnIndex(name)" );
          for( int k = 0; k < names.length; k++) {
               if ( k > 0 ) sb.append( ", " );
               sb.append( columnModel.getColumnIndex( names[k] ) ).append( " " ).append( names[k] );
          System.out.println( sb );
          sb = new StringBuffer();
          System.out.println( "Model index by visible order");
          for ( int k = 0; k < columnModel.getColumnCount(); k++ ) {
               if ( k > 0 ) sb.append( ", " );
               TableColumn column = columnModel.getColumn( k );
               sb.append( column.getModelIndex() ).append( " " ).append( column.getIdentifier() );
          System.out.println( sb );
     public static int getColumnIndex(TableModel model, String name) {
         for(int i = 0; i < model.getColumnCount(); i++) {
             if( model.getColumnName(i).equalsIgnoreCase(name) ) {
                 return i;
         return -1;
}