JTable.setDefaultRenderer

Question

HI,
I am trying to sett up a custom renderer for my table, however am having a problem in that the renderer code is never executed. In the following code I am trying to create a custom renderer for all table elements that are of the String class, and register the renderer as such, however when executing the code, I never see the System.out.println statement that is in the renderer's getTableCellRendererComponent method. Please help. Test code is as follows:
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JTable;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.table.AbstractTableModel;
import javax.swing.table.TableCellRenderer;
public class TableCellRenderingTest extends JTable {
private static final String [] columnNames = {
"Column 1",
"Column 2",
"Column 3"
private static String [] [] data = {
{"1,1", "1,2", "1,3"},
{"2,1", "2,2", "2,3"}
public TableCellRenderingTest() {
super();
setModel(new MyModel());
setDefaultRenderer(String.class, new MyRenderer());
public class MyModel extends AbstractTableModel {
public String getColumnName(int col) {
return columnNames[col];
public int getRowCount() {
return data.length;
public int getColumnCount() {
return columnNames.length;
public Object getValueAt(int row, int col) {
return data [row] [col];
public class MyRenderer extends JLabel implements TableCellRenderer {
public MyRenderer() {
super();
public Component getTableCellRendererComponent(JTable table,
Object value,
boolean isSelected,
boolean hasFocus,
int row,
int column) {
// **********THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS NEVER PRINTED******//
System.out.println("ABOUT TO RUN RENDERER CODE");
setText((String) value);
return this;
public static void main(String [] args) {
JTable table = new TableCellRenderingTest();
JFrame f = new JFrame();
f.getContentPane().add(table);
f.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
f.pack();
f.setSize(new Dimension(600, 600));
f.show();

Answer 1

Just tried that as well w/o any luck.....see the slightly modified code below:
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JTable;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.table.AbstractTableModel;
import javax.swing.table.TableCellRenderer;
import javax.swing.table.TableColumn;
import javax.swing.table.TableColumnModel;
public class TableCellRenderingTest2 extends JTable {
private static final String [] columnNames = {
"Column 1",
"Column 2",
"Column 3"
private static String [] [] data = {
{"1,1", "1,2", "1,3"},
{"2,1", "2,2", "2,3"}
public TableCellRenderingTest2() {
super();
setModel(new MyModel());
TableColumnModel columnModel = getColumnModel();
TableColumn column0 = columnModel.getColumn(0);
column0.setCellRenderer(new MyRenderer());
public class MyModel extends AbstractTableModel {
public String getColumnName(int col) {
return columnNames[col];
public int getRowCount() {
return data.length;
public int getColumnCount() {
return columnNames.length;
public Object getValueAt(int row, int col) {
return data [row] [col];
public class MyRenderer extends JLabel implements TableCellRenderer {
public MyRenderer() {
super();
public Component getTableCellRendererComponent(JTable table,
Object value,
boolean isSelected,
boolean hasFocus,
int row,
int column) {
System.out.println("ABOUT TO RETRIEVE RENDERER COMPONENT");
setText((String) value);
return this;
public static void main(String [] args) {
JTable table = new TableCellRenderingTest();
JFrame f = new JFrame();
f.getContentPane().add(table);
f.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
f.pack();
f.setSize(new Dimension(600, 600));
f.show();