Thread: Help With Flow-Layout

Hi! I am going thro the flow layout tutorials and am attempting to set-up a panel with 3 labels that are left center and right in the panel. My code is so super close, I am sure it is something small I am missing, but my code has the images appear to be left, left-center, right

What should I change in my code to make the images appear left - center - right?

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.border.LineBorder;
import java.awt.*;
 
public class Data {
 
    JFrame frame		= new JFrame();
    JPanel mainPanel	= new JPanel();
    JPanel secondPanel  = new JPanel();
 
    String playerimage;
    String cpuimage;
    String BattlesWon = "0";
    String BattlesLost = "0";
    String Gold = "0";
    String PlayerLevel = "1";
 
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        new Data().start();
    }
 
    public void start() {
        JLabel myLabel = new JLabel("Enter Player Name:");
        JPanel pnlHeaderInfo = new JPanel(); 
        JPanel pnlCharacters = new JPanel();
        JPanel pnlNextButton = new JPanel();
 
        JTextField myText = new JTextField(20); 
        myLabel.setAlignmentX(JTextField.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
 
        pnlHeaderInfo.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 60));
        pnlHeaderInfo.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
        pnlHeaderInfo.add(myLabel);
        pnlHeaderInfo.add(myText);
        pnlHeaderInfo.setBorder(new LineBorder(Color.RED, 3));
        mainPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(600, 400));
        mainPanel.add(pnlHeaderInfo);
 
        JLabel lblLeftChar1 = new JLabel();
        JLabel lblCenterChar2 = new JLabel();
        JLabel lblRightChar3 = new JLabel();
 
 
        lblLeftChar1.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(141,244));
        lblLeftChar1.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(141,244));
        lblLeftChar1.setIcon(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("/resources/__Link.jpg")));
 
        lblCenterChar2.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(141,244));
        lblCenterChar2.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(141,244));
        lblCenterChar2.setIcon(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("/resources/__Mario.png")));
 
        lblRightChar3.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(141,244));
        lblRightChar3.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(141,244));
        lblRightChar3.setIcon(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("/resources/__Pikachu.png")));
 
        pnlCharacters.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(496, 256));
        pnlCharacters.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
 
        pnlCharacters.add(lblLeftChar1, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
        pnlCharacters.add(lblCenterChar2, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        pnlCharacters.add(lblRightChar3, BorderLayout.LINE_END);
        pnlCharacters.setBorder((new LineBorder(Color.BLUE, 3)));
        mainPanel.add(pnlCharacters);
 
        JButton btnNext = new JButton("Start Game");
        btnNext.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
 
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                //hide the current main panel
                mainPanel.setVisible(false);
                beginstagetwo();
            }
        });
 
        btnNext.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(112,29));
        btnNext.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(112,29));
        pnlNextButton.add(btnNext, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        pnlNextButton.setBorder((new LineBorder(Color.GREEN)));
        mainPanel.add(pnlNextButton);
 
        frame.add(mainPanel);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); 
        frame.pack(); 
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null); 
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }
    public void beginstagetwo() {
        JPanel pnlPlayerStats = new JPanel();
 
        pnlPlayerStats.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 60));
 
        JLabel lblPlayerName = new JLabel("Player Name:");
        JTextField txtPlayerName = new JTextField(15);
        lblPlayerName.setAlignmentX(JTextField.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
 
        JLabel lblPlayerGold = new JLabel("Gold:");
        JTextField txtPlayerGold = new JTextField(6);
        lblPlayerGold.setAlignmentX(JTextField.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
 
        pnlPlayerStats.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
        pnlPlayerStats.add(lblPlayerName);
        pnlPlayerStats.add(txtPlayerName);
        pnlPlayerStats.add(lblPlayerGold);
        pnlPlayerStats.add(txtPlayerGold);
 
 
        pnlPlayerStats.setBorder(new LineBorder(Color.ORANGE, 3));
        secondPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(600, 400));
        secondPanel.add(pnlPlayerStats);
        frame.add(secondPanel);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }
}

Originally Posted by jim829

That's what FlowLayout does, it starts on the left and lays them out until the next one won't fit and starts over on the left again, going back and forth. You can change the width of your sub panels to have them better fit. However, if someone resizes the main window, the sub panels may readjust. You can always prevent resizing if you choose to do so.

Regards,
Jim

I thought that setting the max & min size of the labels with

setMaximumSize
setMinimumSize

would combat this. If I change the width of my sub-panel the image still remains directly beside the left image so it's left, left-center, right. Let me upload a few images to illustrate this.

Changing the width wider - still seems to leave the images left, left-center and right

Am I "throwing it off" with something else in my code?
Screen Shot 2019-01-14 at 4.45.47 PM.jpg
Screen Shot 2019-01-14 at 4.46.26 PM.jpg

After further testing, I am not sure why but adding in alignment for the label itself caused everything to display as I desired

lblCenterChar2.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);

Can someone tell me why this did the fix, but setting the alignment when adding the label to the panel did not fix it...meaning this line

pnlCharacters.add(lblCenterChar2, BorderLayout.CENTER);