Question

Been struggling for this for some time. My method looks like this:

public Frame(){
            JFrame window = new JFrame();
            window.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
            window.setSize(800, 600);

            JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());

            GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
              gbc.gridheight =3;
              gbc.gridwidth = 3;


            JButton upButt = new JButton();//Buttons.upButton();
              gbc.gridx = 1;
              gbc.gridy = 0;
              panel.add(upButt, gbc);

            JButton downButt = new JButton();
              gbc.gridx = 1;
              gbc.gridy = 2;
              panel.add(downButt, gbc);

            JButton leftButt = new JButton();//Buttons.leftButton();
              gbc.gridx=0;
              gbc.gridy = 1;
              panel.add(leftButt, gbc);

            JButton rightButt = new JButton();//Buttons.rightButton();
              gbc.gridx =2;
              gbc.gridy = 1;
              panel.add(rightButt, gbc);

            window.add(panel);
            window.setVisible(true);

           }

From my understanding – after reading and rereading the Java doc. – this should give me 4 buttons in a cross shape. This however isn’t the case and the buttons are stacked on top of one another in the center of the window.
What am I missing?

Answer 1

Why are you using gridheight and gridwidth of 3? That’s a bit strange to say the least.

For my money, I’d simplify things and use a simple GridLayout:

import java.awt.GridLayout;
import javax.swing.*;

public class Foo003 {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      JButton upButton = new JButton("Up");
      JButton downButton = new JButton("Down");
      JButton leftButton = new JButton("Left");
      JButton rightButton = new JButton("Right");
      JComponent[][] components = { 
            { new JLabel(), upButton, new JLabel() },
            { leftButton, new JLabel(), rightButton },
            { new JLabel(), downButton, new JLabel() } };

      JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(components.length,
            components[0].length, 8, 8));
      for (int i = 0; i < components.length; i++) {
         for (int j = 0; j < components[i].length; j++) {
            panel.add(components[i][j]);
         }
      }

      int eb = 15;
      panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(eb, eb, eb, eb));

      JFrame frame = new JFrame("Grid e.g.");
      frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
      frame.getContentPane().add(panel);
      frame.pack();
      frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
      frame.setVisible(true);
   }
}