Validating JTable Cell

Question

For a particular project I'm working on the specs say that as a user types a value into a particular cell in a table, I must validate that each character is valid and that they are typing a valid code.
Example: Say valid codes are "01", "02", "10", 11", "20", ... we actually have a large number of codes and not all are numeric.
I have the part about validating as they type, if they type a 0 ... no problem so far so they type as the next character a 3 ... well there's no 03 code in the list so I make the "ding" sound and I don't even allow the 3 to show in the field. they would still see the 0 and the cursor waiting for the next char. and if they then typed 1 ... thats ok because 01 is a valid code. And in this example there are no codes larger than 2 digits so if they tryied to type any more i just make the "ding" and don't add the character.
The checking as they type works great they cannot enter a bad code... what I didn't think about is what if they just type a 1 and then exit the field. It wasn't an error because the char 1 was a valid begining to the code "11" but wasn't the complete code.
What I need to do is a second check when they're done editing the field to see if the code currently there is valid. and if it is not, do not leave the edit portion of the field and stay positioned to the last character and make the "ding" sound just as if they had typed something invalid.
For anyone's curriosity here is the TextField class that I create that columns cell editor from
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.Vector;
public class ToothTextField extends JTextField {
     class MyPlainDocument extends javax.swing.text.PlainDocument {
          public void insertString(int offset, String chars, javax.swing.text.AttributeSet a) throws javax.swing.text.BadLocationException {
               // Quit if no string was given.
               if (chars == null) {
                    return;
               boolean passed = true;
               chars = chars.toUpperCase();
               StringBuffer oldString = new StringBuffer(this.getText(0, this.getLength()));
               oldString.insert(offset, chars);
               String newString = oldString.toString();
               if (!newString.equals("")) {
                    boolean found = false;
                    for (int i = 0;(i < validTeeth.size()) && !found; i++) {
                         String validTooth = (String) validTeeth.elementAt(i);
                         if (validTooth.length() >= newString.length()) {
                              if (newString.equalsIgnoreCase(validTooth.substring(0, newString.length()))) {
                                   found = true;
                    if (!found) {
                         passed = false;
                         java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep();
               if (!passed) {
                    return;
               // Ignore the null terminator at the end of the string.
               int capacity = (3) - getContent().length();
               if (capacity >= chars.length()) {
                    // Text fits within the set length.
                    super.insertString(offset, chars, a);
               else if (capacity > 0) {
                    // Text is too large, truncate.
                    super.insertString(offset, chars.substring(0, capacity), a);
                    /// Signal an error.
                    java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep();
               else { /// Signal an error.
                    java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep();
     private Vector validTeeth;
      * TextField constructor comment.
     public ToothTextField() {
          super();
          initialize();
      * TextField constructor comment.
     public ToothTextField(Vector teeth) {
          super();
          validTeeth = teeth;
     protected javax.swing.text.Document createDefaultModel() {
          return new MyPlainDocument();
      * Initialize the class.
     private void initialize() {
          setName("ToothTextField");
          setSize(4, 20);
     public void setValidTeeth(Vector teeth) {
          validTeeth = teeth;
}Please help!
Thanks.

Answer 1

1) There is no addFocusLostEvnt() function in the cells.... Unless you plan to add a custom one one for each cell you create.
2) The other options works,(that of overriding editingstopped) but still u need to create celleditor and celleditor listener for each of the columns.
3) The easiest and cleanes t solution I found was to override fireTableCellUpdated in the tableModel
public void fireTableCellUpdated(int row, int column){
super.fireTableCellUpdated(row, column);
System.out.println("Row: " + row + " Column: " + column);
Still have to find out how to get the focus back into the cell ( cell.requestfocus() does not seem to work )
Any suggestions