Problem while tabbing out of a cell

Question

I have a JTable in which if I enter an invalid data in a particular cell and tab out, after showing the error message the cursor should be brought back to the error cell. I was able to do this with the following code.
isCellEditable(int row, int col){
tblDamageDetials.changeSelection(errorRow,errorCol,false,false);
tblDamageDetials.setEditingColumn(errorCol);
errorRow and errorCol will have the row and col where the invalid data is present.
This will act like a lock and will never let u out of the error cell if u tab again. But I want the error message to appear everytime I tab out of the error cell.
The code to display the error message is invoked from the method setValueAt().
But the problem is when I try to tab out of the cell again, I'll not be getting the error message again.This is because the setValueAt method will be called only if the cursor is on the celleditor. But the above code will not put the cursor on the editor, instead it will be on the renderer only. So while tabbing the setValueAt will not be invoked.
I tried bringing the focus to the editor by using tblDamageDetials.editCellAt(erroRow,errorCol);
Then I am getting StackOverFlow error.
Could somebody please help me out.

Answer 1

Thanks for the help.I tried implementing what u told, but still I'm getting StackOverflow exception.I'm getting the exception at editCellAt() method.
I'll paste my code here.If possible please look into it.
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.ListSelectionListener;
import javax.swing.event.ListSelectionEvent;
import javax.swing.table.AbstractTableModel;
import javax.swing.table.JTableHeader;
import javax.swing.DefaultCellEditor;
import java.awt.*;
public class TestTable extends JFrame {
public static final int firstCol = 0;
public static final int secondCol = 1;
public Object[][] tableData = {{"", ""}, {"", ""}};
public String[] colName = {"First Col", "Second Col"};
public TableModel tableModel = new TableModel();
public JTable tblDamageDetials = new JTable(tableModel);
public int rowSelected = 0;
private JScrollPane slpDemageDetails = null;
private JTextField txfDamageComponent = new JTextField();
private JTextField txfRepair = new JTextField();
private boolean checkFlag = true;
private int errorCol = -1;
private int errorRow = -1;
MyCellEditor myCellEditor = null;
TestTable() {
this.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
this.getContentPane().add(getslpDemageDetails(), BorderLayout.CENTER);
private JScrollPane getslpDemageDetails() {
if (slpDemageDetails == null) {
createTable();
return slpDemageDetails;
public static void main(String args[]) {
TestTable test = new TestTable();
test.show();
          test.setVisible(true);
test.setSize(800, 500);
class TableModel extends AbstractTableModel {
public int getColumnCount() {
return colName.length;
public int getRowCount() {
return colName.length;
public String getColumnName(int col) {
return colName[col];
public Object getValueAt(int row, int col) {
return tableData[row][col];
public Class getColumnClass(int c) {
return getValueAt(0, c).getClass();
public boolean isCellEditable(int row, int col) {
if ((errorCol != -1) && (errorRow != -1)) {
tblDamageDetials.editCellAt(errorRow, errorCol);
checkFlag = true;
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
myCellEditor = null;
myCellEditor = (MyCellEditor) tblDamageDetials.getCellEditor(errorRow, errorCol);
myCellEditor.getTextField().requestFocus();
return true;
public void setValueAt(Object value, int row, int col) {
if (value == null) {
return;
tableData[row][col] = value.toString();
if (col == firstCol) {
if (checkFlag) {
checkFlag = validateData();
if (checkFlag) {
errorCol = -1;
errorRow = -1;
fireTableCellUpdated(row, col);
public void createTable() {
tblDamageDetials.getTableHeader().setReorderingAllowed(false);
tblDamageDetials.setBackground(Color.white);
tblDamageDetials.setSelectionBackground(new Color(254, 254, 254));
tblDamageDetials.setRowHeight(20);
JTableHeader header = tblDamageDetials.getTableHeader();
Dimension dim = header.getPreferredSize();
dim.height = 40;
header.setPreferredSize(dim);
tblDamageDetials.getColumnModel().getColumn(firstCol).setCellEditor(new MyCellEditor(txfDamageComponent));
tblDamageDetials.getColumnModel().getColumn(secondCol).setCellEditor(new MyCellEditor(txfRepair));
ListSelectionModel rowSM = tblDamageDetials.getSelectionModel();
rowSM.addListSelectionListener(new ListSelectionListener() {
public void valueChanged(ListSelectionEvent e) {
if (e.getValueIsAdjusting()) return;
ListSelectionModel lsm = (ListSelectionModel) e.getSource();
if (lsm.isSelectionEmpty()) {
rowSelected = -1;
return;
} else
rowSelected = lsm.getMinSelectionIndex();
slpDemageDetails = new JScrollPane(tblDamageDetials);
slpDemageDetails.setName("slpDemageDetails");
dim = new Dimension(454, 500);
slpDemageDetails.setPreferredSize(dim);
slpDemageDetails.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED);
slpDemageDetails.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
} /* End of createTable method */
private boolean validateData() {
boolean checkFlag = true;
int size = tblDamageDetials.getRowCount();
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
if ((checkFlag) && (getParseFloat(tableData[i][firstCol].toString().trim()) == 0)) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "invalid data");
checkFlag = false;
errorCol = firstCol;
errorRow = i;
return checkFlag;
public float getParseFloat(String value) {
float retValue = 0.0f;
try {
retValue = Float.parseFloat(value);
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
retValue = 0.0f;
return retValue;
} /* End of getParseFloat method */
class MyCellEditor extends DefaultCellEditor {
private JTextField tf;
public MyCellEditor(JTextField text) {
super(text);
tf = (JTextField) editorComponent;
public JTextField getTextField() {
return tf;
Hope somebody will be able to help me.
Thanks,
Ashey