Question

I have a class called “Console”, with the following structure:

public Console(Game game) {
    super(new GridBagLayout());

    m_game = game;
    textField = new JTextField(20);
    textField.addActionListener(this);

    textArea = new JTextArea(20, 75);
    textArea.setEditable(false);
    JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(textArea);

    GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
    c.gridwidth = GridBagConstraints.REMAINDER;

    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;

    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
    c.weightx = 1.0;
    c.weighty = 1.0;
    add(scrollPane, c);
    add(textField, c);
}

And then a method in my Game class:

public void createAndShowGUI() {

    JFrame frame = new JFrame("My game");
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

    frame.add(newConsole);

    frame.pack();
    frame.setVisible(true);
    frame.setResizable(false);
}

The problem I’m having, is I don’t want the Scroll Pane to be able to scroll horizontally, only vertically. The horizontal scrollbar appears when I append something to the Text Area that’s too large to fit in the window. Is there a way I can prevent horizontal scrolling, and instead just have the Text Area print out whatever’s too large to fit on the next line?

Example:

(The example Text Area can only fit 20 characters before it needs to allow horizontal scrolling)

Instead of

Hello, my name is Bob.

This would appear

Hello, my name is B
ob.

Answer 1

You can set JScrollPane.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER) to ensure there is never a horizontal scroll. In addition, your textArea will need JTextArea.setWrapStyleWord(true) and JTextArea.setLineWrap(true);