How to align options vertically in JOptionaPane?

[Mohammad Rahman]

How to align options vertically in JOptionaPane?

 

      private String choices[] = {"1","2","3"};
            
      //this give everything horizotally but I want vertically.
      int choice = JOptionPane.showOptionDialog(null, "select from ..","choices",
        				JOptionPane.DEFAULT_OPTION, JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE, null, choice, choices[0]); 
        		return choice;

[Campbell Ritchie]

Have you tried setting a layout on the dialogue?

[Norm Radder]

I don't know if you have any control over how JOptionPane showOptionDialog method displays the contents of the array.  You may have to write your own dialog window.

[Rob Camick]

The layout of the option pane is controlled internally, and there are no methods to directly control the layout of the buttons.

So, the proper solution is to just create a custom modal JDialog that displays the components based on your requirements.

However, if you really want to use the JOptionPane functionality then you would need to:

1. create the JOptionPane as a Swing component and then change the layout manager of the panel containing the buttons.
2. add the JOptionPane to a JDialog and implement the standard option pane functionality manually.

The first step is demonstrated below:

    import java.awt.*;
    import javax.swing.*;
    
    public class SSCCE extends JPanel
    {
    	public SSCCE()
    	{
    		String[] commands = {"1", "2", "3", "4","5", "6", "7", "8"};
    
        	JOptionPane op = new JOptionPane
        	(
        		"Choose an option below", // Prompt message
                JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE, // Message type
                JOptionPane.YES_NO_CANCEL_OPTION, // Option type
                null, // Icon
                commands, // List of commands
                commands[commands.length - 1]
            );
    
    		java.util.List<JButton> buttons = SwingUtils.getDescendantsOfType(JButton.class, op, true);
    		Container parent = buttons.get(0).getParent();
    		parent.setLayout( new GridLayout(2, 0, 5, 5) );
    
       		add(op);
    	}
    
    	private static void createAndShowGUI()
    	{
    		JFrame frame = new JFrame("SSCCE");
    		frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    		frame.add(new SSCCE(), BorderLayout.LINE_START);
    		frame.pack();
    		frame.setLocationByPlatform( true );
    		frame.setVisible( true );
    	}
    
    	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    	{
    		java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater( () -> createAndShowGUI() );
    	}
    }

The above code searches for the buttons that have been added to the option pane and then finds the parent container and changes the layout manager of the container to be a GridLayout. You will also need the  SwingUtils class.

To implement the second step you will need to Read the API for the JOptionPane. It contains the code necessary add the code to a JDialog and implement the option pane functionality.