Problem In Awt List

Question

I am Having problem with Awt List component
setSize
setPrefferedSize
setMaximumSize
None is working I have limited screen are to use in applet Hence I want to limit the width of List
Below Is My code I am using in Devloping Some Applet.
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.List;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
public class ListSizeProblem extends Frame {
     public List list1;
     ListSizeProblem (String t) {
          this.setTitle(t); // setting up the main window
          this.setSize(500, 400);
          this.setLocation(50, 50);
          this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
          addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { // application will exit if window is closed
             public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
                  System.exit(0);
          list1 = new List(15, false);
          //list1.setSize(new Dimension(40,200));
          list1.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(40,200));
          //list1.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(40,200));
           for (int i = 1; i < 21; i++) {
             list1.add("But"+i);
          this.add(list1,BorderLayout.WEST);
          this.pack();
          this.setVisible(true);
     public static void main (String [] args) {
          ListSizeProblem mainframe = new ListSizeProblem("List Size");
}can somebody help me

Answer 1

It is indeed a bug. Once your List has data in it, the getPreferredSize method starts calling preferredSize(int rows) method. This method in turn asks the list's peer for the size. The result is that the preferred size you set is completely ignored (hence a bug). Quick fix would be to override the getPreferredSize method like so.
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.List;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
public class ListSizeProblem extends Frame {
    public List list1;
    ListSizeProblem(String t) {
        this.setTitle(t); // setting up the main window
        this.setSize(500, 400);
        this.setLocation(50, 50);
        this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
            public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
                System.exit(0);
        list1 = new List(15, false) {
            Dimension size = new Dimension(40, 200);
            public java.awt.Dimension getPreferredSize() {
                return size;
        for (int i = 1; i < 21; i++) {
            list1.add("But" + i);
        this.add(list1, BorderLayout.WEST);
        this.setVisible(true);
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ListSizeProblem mainframe = new ListSizeProblem("List Size");
}The list is not 200 pixels high, but this just comes from the fact that you don't have a BorderLayout.NORTH or BorderLayout.SOUTH object yet, so the BorderLayout is alowed to extend the height of the list.
And you seem to havea pretty exact idea on the size you want your components to be. If the frame is not going to be resizable, then you can use no layout manager if you want. This would require you to set the exact bounds of every component you add to the frame.