Thread: Rendering the cells of JComboBox in Java

Hi guys,

Say I have a student class with fields names and Gender. Now, I have a students' array. such that I can create multiple students' classes: student a, student b, student c e.t.c and store them into the students' array. Now, I store this students' array in a JComboBox and want to only display the names of these students in the array. Such that the JComboBox lists only the names of student a, student b and student c. . When a user clicks on a selected Item on the JComboBox, even though, it was a student's name that was selected, I want the selectedItem to be a object of the Student class. This, I have learnt works with JList by writing your own custom JList models and then DefaultListCellRenderer. Is there anyway, one could also do this with JComboBox? If possible, could anyone point me to how to go about it? I Been on this for days now. I have NOT implemented the JCombBox as that is where I am finding it difficult to get right. If anyone could point me to how to start implementing it, I will be grateful. Just kindly check the full code and let me know what you think. Below is the MCVE.

//Main Method

import StudentList;
import Student;
import ViewGui;
import Controller;
 
public class SwingMainMethod {
 
	/**
	 * @param args
	 */
	public static void main(String[] args) {
 
		 Student student = new Student();
		 StudentList studentList = new StudentList();
		 	Student studenta = new Student();
			studenta.setStudentName("Lance");
			studenta.setStudentId("01");
			studentList.add(studenta); // add the student
			Student studentb = new Student();
			studentb.setStudentName("John");
			studentb.setStudentId("02");
			studentList.add(studentb); // add the student
			Student studentc = new Student();
			studentc.setStudentName("Harry");
			student.setStudentId("03");
			studentList.add(studentc);
 
 
	      ViewGui view = new ViewGui(studentList) ;
	      Controller c = new Controller(view,studentList);
	}
 
}

//The Controller

package controller;
 
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
 
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.ListSelectionModel;
 
import Student;
import ViewGui;
import CustomListCellRenderer;
import StudentList;
 
public class Controller {
 
	private static StudentList studentList; // the JList custom model
	private ViewGui view; // the view
 
	public Controller(ViewGui view, StudentList studentList) {
 
		this.studentList = studentList;
		this.view = view;
		view.setVisible(true);
		this.view.addStudentListener(new AddStudentListener());
	}
 
	class AddStudentListener implements ActionListener {
		public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
			if (e.getActionCommand().equals("click me!")) {
				view.setVisible(false);
				JFrame c = new JFrame();
				c.getContentPane();
				c.setSize(100, 400);
				c.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
				JPanel panel = new JPanel();
				JList<Student> list = new JList<Student>(studentList);
				list.setCellRenderer(new CustomListCellRenderer());
				list.setVisibleRowCount(3);
				list.setFont(new Font("Tahoma", Font.PLAIN, 14));
				list.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
				list.setBounds(0, 0, 30, 40);
				JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane(list);
				panel.add(list);
				c.add(panel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
				c.setVisible(true);
 
			}
		}
	}
 
}

//The Model

 
 
 
public class Student {
 
	private String studentName;
	private String studentID ;
 
	public String getStudentName(){
	return studentName;
	}
 
	public String getStudentId(){
		return studentID;
		}
 
	public void setStudentName(String name){
	this.studentName = name;
	}
 
	public void setStudentId(String id){
	this.studentID = id;
	}
 
	public Student(String studentName, String studentId){
	this.studentName = studentName;
	this.studentID = studentId;
	}
 
	/**
	*Default constructor
	**/
	public Student(){
 
	}
 
 
 
	@Override
	public String toString() {
		return "Student [studentName=" + studentName + ", studentID=" + studentID + "]";
	}
 
}

//The Gui

 
package view;
 
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Container;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
 
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import Student;
 
import CustomListCellRenderer;
import StudentComboModel;
import StudentList;
 
public class ViewGui extends JFrame{
 
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
	public JButton button = new JButton("click me!");
	public JComboBox<Student> studentCombo;
	String[] comboTypes = { "Lance", "John", "Harry" };
 
	public ViewGui(StudentList studentList){
		StudentComboModel studentModel = new StudentComboModel(studentList);
	setTitle("Main Window");
	setSize(200,200);
	Container c = getContentPane();
    c.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    CustomListCellRenderer renderer = new CustomListCellRenderer();
    renderer.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200, 130));
    studentCombo = new JComboBox<Student>();
	studentCombo.setModel(studentModel);
	studentCombo.setRenderer(renderer);
	studentCombo.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200, 50));
	//studentCombo.setSelectedIndex(0);
 
 
    c.add(button,   BorderLayout.NORTH);
    c.add(studentCombo, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
 
 
	}
 
    public void addStudentListener(ActionListener m){
			button.addActionListener(m);
		}
}

//====================== The Jlist Model and Renderer classes

a. Model

 
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
 
import javax.swing.AbstractListModel;
 
import Student;
 
public class StudentList extends AbstractListModel<Student> {
 
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
	List<Student> studentList = new ArrayList<Student>();
	@Override
	public int getSize() {
		return studentList.size();
	}
 
	@Override
	public Student getElementAt(int index) {
 
		return (Student)studentList.get(index);
 
	}
 
	/**
	 * adds a student to the JList panel
	 * @param student to be added
	 */
	public void add(Student student) {
	    System.out.println("adding");
	    studentList.add(student);
	    int index0 = studentList.size() - 1;
	    int index1 = index0;
	    fireIntervalAdded(this, index0, index1);
	    System.out.println(studentList.toString());
	}
 
 
 
}

b.Renderer

 
package backEndImp;
 
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
 
import javax.swing.DefaultListCellRenderer;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
 
import Student;
 
public class CustomListCellRenderer extends DefaultListCellRenderer {
 
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
	private static final Color HIGHLIGHT_COLOR = new Color(0, 0, 128);
 
	public CustomListCellRenderer(){
		setOpaque(true);
	    setIconTextGap(12);
	}
 
	public Component getListCellRendererComponent(
			JList<?> list, Object value,
			int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus) {
 
 
		Component result = super.getListCellRendererComponent(list, value, index, isSelected, cellHasFocus);
 
		if (isSelected) {
		      setBackground(HIGHLIGHT_COLOR);
		      setForeground(Color.white);
		    } else {
		      setBackground(Color.white);
		      setForeground(Color.black);
		    }
		if (result instanceof JLabel && value instanceof Student) {
 
			JLabel lbl = (JLabel) result;
			Student obj = (Student) value;
			lbl.setText(obj.getStudentName() + "\t" + obj.getStudentId());
 
		}
		return result;
	}
 
}

//The JComboBox Model

 
 
import javax.swing.ComboBoxModel;
import javax.swing.event.ListDataListener;
 
import Student;
 
public class StudentComboModel implements ComboBoxModel<Student> {
private StudentList list;
public StudentComboModel(StudentList list){
this.list = list;
}
 
	@Override
	public int getSize() {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		return 0;
	}
 
	@Override
	public Student getElementAt(int index) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		return null;
	}
 
	@Override
	public void addListDataListener(ListDataListener l) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
 
	}
 
	@Override
	public void removeListDataListener(ListDataListener l) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
 
	}
 
	@Override
	public void setSelectedItem(Object anItem) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
 
	}
 
	@Override
	public Object getSelectedItem() {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		return null;
	}
 
}

Thanks

You would do it almost the exact same way, just use a ListCellRenderer. What have you tried? Have you looked at the API or tutorials at all?

You could also just override the toString() method in your Student class.

Why does there have to be a custom model?

Please post an MCVE showing what you've tried so far.

That's not an MCVE. Why do you have two different model classes? Why do you need them at all? What does this code do? I'm pretty confused about what your actual question is.