Updating a JTable by hiding/displaying columns

Question

I have a customizable JTable where I display/hide columns according to a users' selection criteria. My code works fine for hiding/displaying columns if the Jtable is opened for the fist time, but doesnot work if I want to hide columns in already displayed table.How do I do it?? Any clue?? I tried
myTabModel.fireTableDataChanged();
but this only works for updating the table data...it does not hide columns for me... when I hide column I just remove desired column like this:
myTable.removeColumn(myTable.getColumn("Column 3"));

Answer 1

Here is the sample code I tried. It worked without any invalidate or repaint or updateUI(). generated using NetBeans
check for <==== for the line of code doing this
* TableTest.java
* Created on October 9, 2002, 1:42 PM
* @author  Anki Reddy Nelaturu
public class TableTest extends javax.swing.JFrame {
    /** Creates new form TableTest */
    public TableTest() {
        initComponents();
    /** This method is called from within the constructor to
     * initialize the form.
     * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is
     * always regenerated by the Form Editor.
    private void initComponents() {
        jScrollPane1 = new javax.swing.JScrollPane();
        jTable1 = new javax.swing.JTable();
        jButton1 = new javax.swing.JButton();
        jTextField1 = new javax.swing.JTextField();
        menuBar = new javax.swing.JMenuBar();
        fileMenu = new javax.swing.JMenu();
        openMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        saveMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        saveAsMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        exitMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        editMenu = new javax.swing.JMenu();
        cutMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        copyMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        pasteMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        deleteMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        helpMenu = new javax.swing.JMenu();
        contentsMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        aboutMenuItem = new javax.swing.JMenuItem();
        getContentPane().setLayout(null);
        addWindowListener(new java.awt.event.WindowAdapter() {
            public void windowClosing(java.awt.event.WindowEvent evt) {
                exitForm(evt);
        jTable1.setModel(new javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel(
            new Object [][] {
                {null, null, null, null},
                {null, null, null, null},
                {null, null, null, null},
                {null, null, null, null}
            new String [] {
                "Title 1", "Title 2", "Title 3", "Title 4"
        jScrollPane1.setViewportView(jTable1);
        getContentPane().add(jScrollPane1);
        jScrollPane1.setBounds(80, 30, 230, 120);
        jButton1.setText("jButton1");
        jButton1.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                jButton1ActionPerformed(evt);
        getContentPane().add(jButton1);
        jButton1.setBounds(170, 180, 81, 26);
        jTextField1.setText("jTextField1");
        getContentPane().add(jTextField1);
        jTextField1.setBounds(60, 190, 63, 20);
        fileMenu.setText("File");
        openMenuItem.setText("Open");
        fileMenu.add(openMenuItem);
        saveMenuItem.setText("Save");
        fileMenu.add(saveMenuItem);
        saveAsMenuItem.setText("Save As ...");
        fileMenu.add(saveAsMenuItem);
        exitMenuItem.setText("Exit");
        exitMenuItem.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                exitMenuItemActionPerformed(evt);
        fileMenu.add(exitMenuItem);
        menuBar.add(fileMenu);
        editMenu.setText("Edit");
        cutMenuItem.setText("Cut");
        editMenu.add(cutMenuItem);
        copyMenuItem.setText("Copy");
        editMenu.add(copyMenuItem);
        pasteMenuItem.setText("Paste");
        editMenu.add(pasteMenuItem);
        deleteMenuItem.setText("Delete");
        editMenu.add(deleteMenuItem);
        menuBar.add(editMenu);
        helpMenu.setText("Help");
        contentsMenuItem.setText("Contents");
        helpMenu.add(contentsMenuItem);
        aboutMenuItem.setText("About");
        helpMenu.add(aboutMenuItem);
        menuBar.add(helpMenu);
        setJMenuBar(menuBar);
        pack();
    private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
        jTable1.removeColumn(jTable1.getColumnModel().getColumn(Integer.parseInt(jTextField1.getText())));        // <========
    private void exitMenuItemActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
        System.exit(0);
    /** Exit the Application */
    private void exitForm(java.awt.event.WindowEvent evt) {
        System.exit(0);
     * @param args the command line arguments
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        new TableTest().show();
    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    private javax.swing.JScrollPane jScrollPane1;
    private javax.swing.JMenu fileMenu;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem exitMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JButton jButton1;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem saveAsMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem saveMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem copyMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem pasteMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem cutMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem openMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JMenuBar menuBar;
    private javax.swing.JMenu editMenu;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem aboutMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem contentsMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JMenu helpMenu;
    private javax.swing.JTextField jTextField1;
    private javax.swing.JMenuItem deleteMenuItem;
    private javax.swing.JTable jTable1;
    // End of variables declaration
}