Jlist question

Question

i was wondering if there is a way to format the information in a jlist into columns so that each piece of data is aligned correctly? example output:
Name Age Weight
John 15 150
Kyle 17 175
Christopher 14 160
i cant just hard code where the age/weight should print out since the user will be specifying what name will be entered, age, ect. any information will be helpful

Answer 1

any reason you're not using a JTable? - looks ideal for your data
anyway, if you want to use a JList, a multi column might do the trick
experiment with the horizontal alignment - change Kyle's weight to 99 to see
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
class Testing extends JFrame
  String[][] data = {{"Name","Age","Weight"},{"John","15","150"},{"Kyle","17","175"},{"Christopher","14","160"}};
  DefaultListModel dlm = new DefaultListModel();
  JList list = new JList(dlm);
  public Testing()
    setLocation(400,300);
    setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    list.setCellRenderer(new MyRenderer());
    JScrollPane sp = new JScrollPane(list);
    sp.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200,200));
    getContentPane().add(sp);
    pack();
    for(int x = 0; x < data.length; x++) dlm.addElement(data[x]);
  public static void main(String[] args){new Testing().setVisible(true);}
class MyRenderer extends JPanel implements ListCellRenderer
  JLabel[] lbl = new JLabel[3];
  public MyRenderer()
    setLayout(new GridLayout(0,3));
    for(int x = 0; x < lbl.length; x++)
      lbl[x] = new JLabel();
      if(x > 0) lbl[x].setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);//<-----experiment with this
      lbl[x].setOpaque(true);
      add(lbl[x]);
  public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list,Object value,
                      int index,boolean isSelected,boolean cellHasFocus)
    for(int x = 0; x < lbl.length; x++)
      lbl[x].setText((String)((String[])value)[x]);
      if(cellHasFocus) lbl[x].setBackground(Color.CYAN);
      else lbl[x].setBackground(Color.WHITE);
    return this;
}