setPreferredSize() vs GridBagConstraints.fill ?

[achana chan]

Hi all.
In my applets, I found that for my components e.g. JTextField, GridBagConstraints.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL would take precedence over component.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(75,17)). In practice, this renders setPreferredSize spurious in a GridBagLayout.
Is this your understanding on how it works, that one either uses fill or setPreferredSize ?
TIA :-)

[achana chan]

I think I've answered my own question on this one.
Better stick with GridBagLayout paramaters, its much simpler that way.
On the other hand, if I use them with setPreferredWidth, I achieve some amazing results in terms of granularity. The flip side is its complexity. It seems to interact with GridBagLayout's allocation of column width.
Has anyone tried something like that?

[Jose Botella]

Hi
I have only found setPrerredWidth on TableColumn. Do you mean that one?

[achana chan]

No, I am using jKomponent.setPreferredWidth(new Dimension(int x, int y)) on JTextFields in a GridBagLayout using only GridBag components such as gridx and gridy.
I am happy with it to the extent that it also allows me to fit 2 components into one "cell" , bound by the same gridx and gridy, like this:

    gbc.gridx=3; 
    gbc.gridy=8;
    gbc.gridwidth=1;  // reset
      gbc.anchor=gbc.FIRST_LINE_START;
    gbc.fill=gbc.NONE;
      lblDZip = new JLabel("ZIP:  ", JLabel.LEFT);
        lblDZip.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.ORANGE));
      midPane.add(lblDZip,gbc);
    gbc.gridx=3; 
    gbc.gridy=8;
      gbc.anchor=gbc.FIRST_LINE_END;
    gbc.gridwidth=1;  // reset
    gbc.weighty=0.5;  // NB last component must take up rest of vertical space!
      fldDZip = new JTextField(11);
        fldDZip.setText("ZXY123WW457WW89WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW");
        fldDZip.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.ORANGE));
      midPane.add(fldDZip,gbc);