Adding scrollpane on TextArea

Question

I am making a GUI in which i am adding the horizontal scroll bar in to TextArea because the length of the label/line that will be display in the TextArea is more than the width of the TextArea.

This is my code where I create the pane. But nothing seems to happen....

//create the text area for description and add into the main frame

public static JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();
textArea.setEditable(false);                                        
textArea.setLineWrap(true);
textArea.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,600));

scrollpanel = new JScrollPane(textArea);    
scrollpanel.setBounds(20, 600, 920, 130);
scrollpanel.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);  
scrollpanel.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
scrollpanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Description"));
frmToolToMigrate.getContentPane().add(scrollpanel);

I filled the scroll area for the same but still nothing seems to happen.. — user2845399, Oct 04 '13 at 09:09
1) `textArea.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,600));` The size of a `JTextArea` can be better specified in the number of rows and columns used in the constructor. 2) `scrollpanel.setBounds(20, 600, 920, 130);` Doing that (suggesting a size) will probably mean that this nonsense can go. .. — Andrew Thompson, Oct 04 '13 at 09:31
.. Java GUIs might have to work on a number of platforms, on different screen resolutions & using different PLAFs. As such they are not conducive to exact placement of components. To organize the components for a robust GUI, instead use layout managers, or [combinations of them](http://stackoverflow.com/a/5630271/418556), along with layout padding & borders for [white space](http://stackoverflow.com/q/17874717/418556). — Andrew Thompson, Oct 04 '13 at 09:31
scrollbar is displaying when i run my code but problem is, suppose the length of the string is more than the width of the textarea then it will no Scrollable.For example suppose i am displaying this statement "Hello I am XYZ . How are you ?". Its display only "Hello I am XYZ . How a" only remaining part is not showing. — user2845399, Oct 04 '13 at 09:39
One [related example](http://stackoverflow.com/a/17626931/1057230)and [another example](http://stackoverflow.com/a/13098108/1057230), hope it helps :-) — nIcE cOw, Oct 04 '13 at 11:30

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

3

Instead of setBounds(), override the scroll pane's getPreferredSize(), as shown here. By default, the scroll bars will appear automatically as required. Also consider implementing the Scrollable interface.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

Community

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answered Oct 04 '13 at 11:23

trashgod

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As you said, I tried same but when i remove the setbound method and override the scroll pane's getPreferredsize(), textArea is not show into my mainframe. – user2845399 Oct 04 '13 at 16:45
Be sure to `pack()` the frame _after_ adding components and _before_ calling `setVisible`. – trashgod Oct 04 '13 at 18:26
yeah i am sure pack() the frame after adding components before adding components and before setVisible() – user2845399 Oct 05 '13 at 05:42
If you are still having problems, it may help to edit your question with an [sscce](http://sscce.org/) that exhibits the problem you describe. – trashgod Oct 05 '13 at 08:36

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 04 '13 at 09:20

Have you looked at

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/scrollpane.html

You can also make textArea as a new class that extends TextArea java class and then implement scrollable.

public class MyTextArea extends JTextArea implements Scrollable{

//Whatever you want to do

}

Adding scrollpane on TextArea

2 Answers2