Thread: Expanding JTextArea

Hey guys, I have a problem where my JTextArea is expanding when I type off the given space. Both in height and width. I've tried setMaximumSize, setSize, setColumns, setRows, and other methods. None of them seem to work.

JTextArea textField = new JTextArea("", 15, 40);
textField.setSize(new Dimension(15, 40)); //did this to reinforce the dimensions but it doesn't work :(

Any help would be appreciated.

Call setLineWrap(true) on the JTextArea. This will help horizontally. Vertically, place your JTextArea in a JScrollPane.

Thanks, that makes sense. However, now a problem with the JScrollPane...nothing is showing up. Here is my code:

TextArea textField = new JTextArea("", 15, 40);
textField.setLineWrap(true);
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(textField);
contentPane.add(scrollPane);

I have no idea what's wrong.

Please define 'nothing is showing up'

Originally Posted by copeg

Please define 'nothing is showing up'

There is no scrollbar.

EDIT: Just to make it clear, everything else is working fine, no errors, it's just that the scrollbar isn't showing up.

It will help with a complete (and simple) example that demonstrates this behavior. Does your code set the preferred size of the JTextArea anywhere? If so remove those lines and see if that fixes the problem.

Originally Posted by copeg

It will help with a complete (and simple) example that demonstrates this behavior. Does your code set the preferred size of the JTextArea anywhere? If so remove those lines and see if that fixes the problem.

The only place where I define the size of the JTextArea is in the line where I initiate it:

JTextArea textField = new JTextArea("", 15, 40);

Removing that makes the JTextArea very small, and the JScrollPane continues to not appear.

A short, compilable example that demonstrates the problem would help tremendously.

Ah, missed that. Here's a little edited part of the code:

import java.awt.Container;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.SpringLayout;
public class testing extends JPanel {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowGame();
            }
        });
    }
    public static void createAndShowGame() {
    	JTextArea textField = new JTextArea("", 15, 40);
    	JFrame frame = new JFrame("Frame");
    	textField.setLineWrap(true);
        JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(textField);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        Container contentPane = frame.getContentPane();
        SpringLayout layout = new SpringLayout();
        contentPane.setLayout(layout);
        contentPane.add(textField);
        contentPane.add(scrollPane);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setSize(458, 325);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }    
}

As you can see, when you run it, there is no Scrollbar.

The posted code adds the JTextArea twice (adding itself, then the scrollpane that contains the JTextArea). Since a component can only have one parent, you will get the behavior you see. Remove the addition of the JTextArea, and just add the JScrollPane (since it already contains the JTextArea). If you want the horizontal scrollbar, remove the setLineWrap, otherwise keep it there if you want it to wrap.

Ah, thanks a lot!