JRadioButton/JCheckBox and text alignement

Question

Hi all,
It is possible only using JRadioButton and JCheckBox to have when using several
of these elements to have text on the left aligned to left and the button right aligned
with the gap in between being variable so that start of text and buttons are aligned.
I would like to have that
Text of my fist button    0
2nd text                  0
3rd text                  0                        
^--- text left aligned    ^---- here the radiobuttons/check boxes right alignedI know how to set text on the left side: myRadioButton.setHorizontalTextPosition(myRadioButton.LEADING).
This is not a problem.
Thanx,
Xavier.

Answer 1

Looking at this, I can't see an easy way. Using the
components you specified, I guess I would set the font
to a fixed size font, and pad the labels with spaces.
If I was going it, I would make each label a JLabel,
not assign a label to a checkbox, and put them
together with a GridLayout. Hope this helpsWell this can be a solution but I would like two things:
-1 be able to use any font
-2 have the default behaviour of RadioButton or Checkbox
that is text also selectable not only the button itself.
I tried another solution: working the FontMetrics and
defined gap between text and icon. But it must be buggy
because it is look and feel (L&F) dependant. In my example,
it only works as expected for motif L&F (i'm running under XP).
And funny enough in my real application, it also works on XP.
Metal that should be the most portable is the worse! :(
I tried J2SE 1.4.3_02 and 1.5.0beta1: same result reagding
alignement.
Is it a bug or a mistake from my side?
Here is my code:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class DoubleAligned extends JFrame {
  protected JMenu lookAndFeelMenu;
  protected Action metalAction;
  protected Action motifAction;
  protected Action windowsAction;
  public static final String METAL_LOOK_AND_FEEL = "javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel";
  public static final String MOTIF_LOOK_AND_FEEL = "com.sun.java.swing.plaf.motif.MotifLookAndFeel";
  public static final String WINDOWS_LOOK_AND_FEEL = "com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel";
  protected JPanel singleAlignementPane;
  protected JPanel doubleAlignementPane;
  protected ButtonGroup singleBG;
  protected JRadioButton jRadioButton_s1;
  protected JRadioButton jRadioButton_s2;
  protected JRadioButton jRadioButton_s3;
  protected JRadioButton jRadioButton_s4;
  protected JCheckBox jCheckBox_s1;
  protected Set buttonSet;
  protected ButtonGroup doubleBG;
  protected JRadioButton jRadioButton_d1;
  protected JRadioButton jRadioButton_d2;
  protected JRadioButton jRadioButton_d3;
  protected JRadioButton jRadioButton_d4;
  protected JCheckBox jCheckBox_d1;
  /** Creates a new instance of JSCResultModePanel */
  public DoubleAligned(String title) {
    super(title);
    lookAndFeelMenu = createLookAndFeelMenu();
    JMenuBar mb = new JMenuBar();
    mb.add(lookAndFeelMenu);
    setJMenuBar(mb);
    JPanel jPanel = new JPanel();
    jPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    singleAlignementPane = createSingleAlignPane();
    doubleAlignementPane = createDoubleAlignPane();
    jPanel.add(singleAlignementPane,BorderLayout.WEST);
    jPanel.add(doubleAlignementPane,BorderLayout.EAST);
    setContentPane(jPanel);
  private JPanel createSingleAlignPane() {
    JPanel jPanel = new JPanel();
    jPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Single aligned (swing default)"));
    // Creation of the layout
    GridBagLayout gridbag = new GridBagLayout();
    GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
    c.weighty = 1.0;   //request any extra vertical space
    c.weightx = 1.0;   //request any extra horizontal space
    c.gridwidth = 1;
    c.insets = new Insets(2,2,2,2);
    c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
    jPanel.setLayout(gridbag);
    // Creation of sub elements
    singleBG = new ButtonGroup();
    jRadioButton_s1 = new JRadioButton("First radio button long text");
    jRadioButton_s1.setHorizontalTextPosition(JRadioButton.LEADING);
    jRadioButton_s1.setBackground(Color.PINK);
    jRadioButton_s2 = new JRadioButton("2nd is shorter");
    jRadioButton_s2.setHorizontalTextPosition(JRadioButton.LEADING);
    jRadioButton_s2.setBackground(Color.GREEN);
    jRadioButton_s3 = new JRadioButton("shortest");
    jRadioButton_s3.setHorizontalTextPosition(JRadioButton.LEADING);
    jRadioButton_s3.setBackground(Color.RED);
    jRadioButton_s4 = new JRadioButton("4th");
    jRadioButton_s4.setHorizontalTextPosition(JRadioButton.LEADING);
    jRadioButton_s4.setBackground(Color.MAGENTA);
    singleBG.add(jRadioButton_s1);
    singleBG.add(jRadioButton_s2);
    singleBG.add(jRadioButton_s3);
    singleBG.add(jRadioButton_s4);
    jCheckBox_s1 = new JCheckBox("Check box is also taken into account");
    jCheckBox_s1.setHorizontalTextPosition(JCheckBox.LEADING);
    jCheckBox_s1.setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
    // Layout of all the components (components added column by column)
    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 0;
    jPanel.add(jRadioButton_s1,c);
    c.gridy = 1;
    jPanel.add(jRadioButton_s2,c);
    c.gridy = 2;
    jPanel.add(jRadioButton_s3,c);
    c.gridy = 3;
    jPanel.add(jRadioButton_s4,c);
    c.gridy = 4;
    jPanel.add(jCheckBox_s1,c);
    return jPanel;
  private JPanel createDoubleAlignPane() {
    JPanel jPanel = new JPanel();
    jPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Double aligned"));
    // Creation of the layout
    GridBagLayout gridbag = new GridBagLayout();
    GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
    c.weighty = 1.0;   //request any extra vertical space
    c.weightx = 1.0;   //request any extra horizontal space
    c.gridwidth = 1;
    c.insets = new Insets(2,2,2,2);
    c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
    jPanel.setLayout(gridbag);
    // Creation of sub elements
    doubleBG = new ButtonGroup();
    buttonSet = new HashSet();
    int largerButtonSize = 0;
    jRadioButton_d1 = new JRadioButton("First radio button long text");
    jRadioButton_d1.setHorizontalTextPosition(JRadioButton.LEADING);
    jRadioButton_d1.setBackground(Color.PINK);
    buttonSet.add(jRadioButton_d1);
    jRadioButton_d2 = new JRadioButton("2nd is shorter");
    jRadioButton_d2.setHorizontalTextPosition(JRadioButton.LEADING);
    jRadioButton_d2.setBackground(Color.GREEN);
    buttonSet.add(jRadioButton_d2);
    jRadioButton_d3 = new JRadioButton("shortest");
    jRadioButton_d3.setHorizontalTextPosition(JRadioButton.LEADING);
    jRadioButton_d3.setBackground(Color.RED);
    buttonSet.add(jRadioButton_d3);
    jRadioButton_d4 = new JRadioButton("4th");
    jRadioButton_d4.setHorizontalTextPosition(JRadioButton.LEADING);
    jRadioButton_d4.setBackground(Color.MAGENTA);
    buttonSet.add(jRadioButton_d4);
    singleBG.add(jRadioButton_d1);
    singleBG.add(jRadioButton_d2);
    singleBG.add(jRadioButton_d3);
    singleBG.add(jRadioButton_d4);
    jCheckBox_d1 = new JCheckBox("Check box is also taken into account");
    jCheckBox_d1.setHorizontalTextPosition(jCheckBox_d1.LEADING);
    jCheckBox_d1.setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
    buttonSet.add(jCheckBox_d1);
    // Layout of all the components (components added column by column)
    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 0;
    jPanel.add(jRadioButton_d1,c);
    c.gridy = 1;
    jPanel.add(jRadioButton_d2,c);
    c.gridy = 2;
    jPanel.add(jRadioButton_d3,c);
    c.gridy = 3;
    jPanel.add(jRadioButton_d4,c);
    c.gridy = 4;
    jPanel.add(jCheckBox_d1,c);
    return jPanel;
  private JMenu createLookAndFeelMenu() {
    JMenuItem menuItem = null;
    JMenu jMenu = new JMenu("Look and feel");
    // *** Metal menu item ***
    metalAction = new AbstractAction("Metal", null) {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        updateLookAndFeel(METAL_LOOK_AND_FEEL);
    menuItem = jMenu.add(metalAction);
    // *** Motif menu item ***
    motifAction = new AbstractAction("Motif", null) {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        updateLookAndFeel(MOTIF_LOOK_AND_FEEL);
    menuItem = jMenu.add(motifAction);
    // *** Windows menu item ***
    windowsAction = new AbstractAction("Windows",null) {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        updateLookAndFeel(WINDOWS_LOOK_AND_FEEL);
    menuItem = jMenu.add(windowsAction);
    return jMenu;
  private int getMax(int item1, int item2) {
    return item1<item2 ? item2 : item1;
  public void paint(Graphics g) {
    FontMetrics fm = getFontMetrics( g.getFont( ) );
    String stringButton;
    AbstractButton myButton;
    int maxWidth;
    Iterator i;
    maxWidth = 0;
    i = buttonSet.iterator();
    // Hack to have text on the left and left aligned with the buttons themselves
    // on the right and right aligned to.
    // WARNING: Do not use HTML button because Button.getText will return the
    // HTML source not the result. Note also that it's not possible to use
    // Button.getSize().width because it returns the size after the layout process
    // it for display.
    while (i.hasNext()) {
      stringButton = ((AbstractButton)i.next()).getText();
      maxWidth = getMax(maxWidth, fm.stringWidth(stringButton));
    i = buttonSet.iterator();
    int currentWidth;
    int newGap;
    while (i.hasNext()) {
      AbstractButton currentButton = (AbstractButton)i.next();
      stringButton = currentButton.getText();
      currentWidth = fm.stringWidth(stringButton);
      newGap = maxWidth - currentWidth + 10;
      currentButton.setIconTextGap(newGap);
    super.paint(g);
  public void updateLookAndFeel(String lookAndFeel) {
    try {
      UIManager.setLookAndFeel(lookAndFeel);
      SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(this);
    } catch (Exception e) {
      // log an error
  public static void main(String []args) {
    DoubleAligned frame = new  DoubleAligned("A solution to have double alignemnt of several radio buttons/check boxes");
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.pack();
    frame.setVisible(true);
}