Question

I came accross this code where Grid constraints are having negative row and column values. What does it signify?

GridBagConstraints cons = new GridBagConstraints();
cons.gridx = 0;
cons.gridy = -2;
cons.gridwidth = 0;
cons.gridheight = 1;
cons.anchor = 10;
cons.fill = 0;

Answer 1

Negative values for gridx and gridy indicate relative positioning, i.e. the component is placed just to the right of the component added before (for gridx) or just below the component (for gridy).

You should not use negative values directly but GridBagConstraints.RELATIVE instead.