Which layout I should use?

Question

Hi,
I want to develop a panel which will contain label and a text field. Label should appear in first row and textfield should in second row. I tried to use boxLayout, but textfield in the second row is taking its maximum size. I want size of the textfield should be as per my need. What way I can use to achieve this?
Thanks,
Atul.

Answer 1

Sometimes you have to embed a couple of panels to keep things aligning properly. Here's another solution, using this method:
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class LeftAlignedDemo extends JFrame {
     public LeftAlignedDemo() {
          JPanel cp = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
          cp.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));
          JPanel promptPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
          promptPanel.add(new JLabel("Enter a value: "), BorderLayout.LINE_START);
          promptPanel.add(new JTextField(30));
          JPanel temp = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
          temp.add(promptPanel, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
          cp.add(temp, BorderLayout.NORTH);
          setContentPane(cp);
          setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          setTitle("LeftAligned Demo");
          pack();
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
               public void run() {
                    new LeftAlignedDemo().setVisible(true);
}Note that if you're creating an input form, and have multiple label/textfield pairs, you might consider using SpringLayout. For just one label/textfield pair though, the above should suffice.